Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at|http: //books .google .com/I

:r^

/

? 1

Mi

chann^'-

^U BBmSH igr.»i|

HISTOET OF ENGLAND

FOR SCHOOLS

FROM EARUEST TIMES TO DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA

BENJAMIN TERRY, Ph.D., LL.D

PB0FBB80R IH THB UiaTBBSITT OT OHXGAOO

SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK

613166 C

OOFYRIGHT, 1908, BT 800TT, FORESMAN AND OOMPANT

Boar. o. i«*.w oom

M Airs ■uc]>aKs, ohioaou.

TYPOGRAPHY BT

VABSH, AITKBN * CUBTIB CX>MPAinr

OBIOAOO

PBEPAOB

The author of this yolnme is in full sympathy with the current reaction against the old-fashioned politicid or military history. Of the English people it is peculiarly true that their history can- not he understood save as it is studied in a synthesis of all phases of national progress, — ^achievements in the art of self-government, moral and religious development, industrial and commercial expansion, intellectual triumphs. It is, however, in every way important, if the student is not to be lost in the multitude of details, that the whole be organized about some thread of nar- rative, some logical succession of events or ideas, that shall fur- nish both unity and continuitj^.^- >

This, in a word, is the'^pWof the present work; on the one hand to break away from the one-idea history, whether that idea represent war, politics, religion, economics, or literature; on the other, to present as a continuous whole an account of the found- ing, organization, development, and expansion of English nation- ality.

It will be seen, further, that the present volume has a close connection with the author's larger work, — A History of Eng- land from the Earliest Times to the Death of Queen Victoria, The work was undertaken, in fact, in response to requests of former students and others, interested in secondary school teaching, who have expressed the wish that the ideas embodied in the earlier book, which was designed for more advanced pupils, might be put into such form and brought within such compass as would be suitable for high school or academy classes. But while founded upon the larger work, the History of England for Schools is more than an abridgment. The succession of titles has been retained with few changes, but the great part of the text has been rewritten with the needs of the secondary school directly in view. New material, also, has been added in the way of tables, maps, and special topics with bibliographies, designed to assist the teacher and direct the student. B. T.

The XJNrvsRsrrr of Chicago AuouBT, 1. 190a.

CONTENTS

PAOB

Preface iii

List op Maps viii

Oenealooical. Tables -, iz

Tables of Contemporaries xriii

Tables Illustrating the English Ck)NSTiTunoN xxii

PART I— TEUTONIC ENGLAND The Era of National Foundation

From Barli€9t IHmes to 1049

CBAFTXB

I. Ancient Britain and the Teutonic Occupation 1

II. The Rival Confederacies of Teutonic Britain, and the Founding

of the National Church 10

m. The Danish Wars— Alfred the Great and the Founding of the

English Kingdom 17

IV. The Expansion of the English Elingdom under the Great Kings

of the House of Alfred 25

V. The Decline of the Early English Kingdom— The Era of Dan- ish Kings 86

Special Topics 47

PART n— FEUDAL ENGLAND The Era of National Organization

From 1042 to 1331

L The Norman Conquest 49

n. The Norman Reorganization of the Kingdom and the Intro- duction of Feudalism 60

in. The Organization of the Kingdom (Continued)— The English

Conquest of Normandy 70

IV. Feudal Reaction and the Reconstitution of the Kingdom 81

V. The Growth of Popular Rights and the Loss of the Continental

Possessions of the Angevius 95

VL The Great Charter 104

VII. The Struggle for the Charter 118

VUL The Charter Confirmed 124

Special Topics 186

V

yi

CONTENTS

PART in— NATIONAL ENGLAND

The Era of National Awakening

book i-h90cial awakening

From 1297 to 1485 OHAPTKB PAGB

I. The New Era— The Struggle of the Scots for Independenoe—

The Favorites 187

IL Edward III.— The Opening of the Hundred Years' War 160

III. The Decline of Edward III.— Second Stage of Hundred Years'

War 164

IV. The Peasant Revolt— The Attack of the King upon the Consti-

tution 176

v. The Constitutional Kings of the House of Lancaster— The

Third Stage of the Hundred Years' War 189

VL The Last Stage of the Hundred Years' War— The Rivabry of

Lancaster and York 200

VIL The Fall of York and the Close of the Dynastic Struggle 218

Special Topics 224

BOOK n— RELIGIOX7B REFORMATION From 1485 to ieo8

L The Restoration of the Monarchy 225

II. The Monarchy Supreme — The Administration of Wolsey 286

ni. The Ecclesiastical Revolt of England 246

IV. The Progress of the Reform 259

V. The Catholic Reaction 273

VI. Elizabeth— The Reform Established 284

VH. Elizabeth— The Duel with Spain 296

Special Topics 806

BOOK m— POLITICAL REVOLUTION From isos to 1689

L The Breach between King and Commons 807

IL The Era of Arbitrary Government 825

m. The Long Parliament and the Qvil War 840

IV. The Parliament and the Army 860

V. Cromwell and the Protectorate 875

VI. The Stuart Restoration 886

VIL The Birth of the Whig Party 898

VIII. The Whig Revolution 418

Spedal Topics 428

00NTENT8

▼U

IL

m.

IV. V.

VI. VII.

vin.

IX.

PART IV— IMPERIAL ENGLAND The Era of National Expansion

From 1689 to t90l

PAOB

The Beg^inning of Party Rule in England and the Founding of

British Foreign Policy 429

The Completion of the Work of the Revolution 447

Walpole and the Fu^ Era of Whig Rule 462

The Pelhams and Pitt— The Ocean Empire Secured 478

George IIL— The First Period of Tory Rule and the Loss of the

American Ck>lonie8 494

The Second Period of Tory Rule and the French Revolution . . 518

The Eastern Question and the First Era of Reform 587

Peel and the Dissolution of the Old Parties— The Crimean

War— Palmerston and British Foreign Policy 559

The Rise of the New Democracy— Gladstone and the Second

Era of Reform 577

Special Topics 608

Index 604

LIST OP MAPS

PAGB

Physical Map of the British Islbs Frontispiece

Physical Map of Southern England 1

Teutonic Britain about dOO 6

Britain about 792 8

Partition of England by Treaty of Wedmorb 19

England: Later Expansion of Wessex 26

The Oreat Earldoms 44

England: 1066-1068 48

England and Scotland: 1066-1828 70

The Angevin Dominions 84

Battle of Bannockburn 144

Campaigns OF Hundred Years* War. 150

Battle of Crecy 155

Parts of France Held by England after Treaty of Troyes 164

France by Treaty of Bretiony 164

General Map op Hundred Years' War. 197

The Wars of the Roses 209

England during Tudor Period 246

England during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 852

Battle op Marston Moor 855

Ireland during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 867

Battle of Dunbar 869

Scotland during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 870

Physical Map of Scotland and Northern England 894

Europe: 1718-1714.. 446

Baftle of Blenheim or Hochstadt 448

Battle of Ramillies 451

Spanish Netherlands 455

Europe : 1789 518

Europe : 1812 582

Battle of Waterloo 534

India 571

South Africa 692

I. GENEALOGICAL TABLES

THE FAMILY OF ALFRED

Egbert, 8(»«» Ethelwnlf* 889-866. d. 868

Sthell

bald, 866-860 Ethelbert, 800-806 Ethelred, 806-871

L_

;Ui(

Ethemelm Ethelwold

th<

1

AursBD, 871-001

Edward the Elder, 901-OK

Edmund,

I

Ethelfleda, d. 010, •'The Lady of the Mercians*' — Ethelred, Ealdorman of Mercia.

Athelstan, 926^10

Edred, 046-066

Edwy, 066^60 Edgar, 060-075

Edglva, m.

Charles the Simple

I Louis IV

lith.

Edhlld, Edi m. (026) m. Hugh the Otto Qreat in 9S0,

afterward Emperor

Other sons

and daughters

n. lUVAL ENGLISH AND DANISH ROYAL FAMILIES

m 1 Bthelfleda

I

Edward the Martyr, 07&-078

siElfleda

Edgar, 060-071

Elfrida

Ethelred the Sedelets, 078-1016

= 2 Emma

1

Bdmmid Ironglde, 1010

Alfred Edward

the the

Etheling Confessor, 100-1006

Edmund

Edward the Outlaw

Edgar USe

T

Margaret b Maleom Canmore, Ki-^OCSCOU

Matilda sHfloryL

I

Christina

lElgtYa

I

Sweyn. King of Norway

Sweyn Forkbeard 1013, 1014

Canute, 1016-1036

Harold

Barefoot

1086-1090

= 9 Emma

Hardlcanute 1039-1043

tmv

GENEALOGIOAL TABLES

m. THE DUKES OP NORMANDY. EARLY CX)NNECn6N WITH THE

ENGLISH LINE

BlebaM n. the Good, 009-10Q6

h

Blohard IIL, 1026-1088

BoU tho WaUrar, 9i2-0Sr William Ixmgsword, 927-948

Blehsrd L Uie Faariess, 94S-906

I

Robert the Derll, 10S8-UM6

William theOooqueror,

from 10S6 Dnke of Nomuuidy, from lOM Kinff of Sngland. Dl«dlM7

Allium

n

Xthelred 2 Canute

IV. THE FAMILY OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

Robert Duke of Normandy <I.11S4

I

William I. = Matilda

daughter of Baldwin V. of Flanders

William n. k. 1067-1100

William, d.

William CUto Count of Flanders, d. 1128

Theobald FV. Count of Bloia

I

Eustace, d. 1168

Henry I. = Matilda of Scotland Adela > k. 1100-1185 I grand d. of Edmund I uronside

Matilda - J ^- Henry V. Emp. Matuaa - ^ ^ Geoffrey Plantagenet

Count of Anjou Henry IL, k. 1154-1189

1120

Stephen = Matilda,

k. of Eng. 1135-115?

daughter of Eustace IIL Count of Boulognie

\

William, Count of Boulogne, 1164-1150

I Mary, Abbess of Romsey; succeeded to Boulogne, m. Dietrich of Flanders

Stephen Count of Blois

—1 Henry

Bishop of

Winchester

1

Other children of minor im- portance

V. FAMILY OF HENRY IL

[•ss-

Matlli

Henry n.

Geoffrey William Rlciuird

Archbishop Longsword King of York Earl of 1189-1199

(Illegitimate) Salisbury

(illegitimate)

lda=: Henry of Saxony Joanna

Otto rv. Emperor, 1909-1818

William n. ofStoily

T

Geoffrey, John d. 1186 King

m. 1199-1216

Constance m. of Brittany Isabella

I of

Arthur Angouieme Duke of 1

Brittany, Henry IIL murdered 181^1278 1808

Eleanor m.

Alfonso King of Castile

Blanche

liOUiS

Vin.of France

GBKB A LOGICAL TABLES

s

VL FAMILT OF JOHN LACKLAND

John = Isabella k.nW-18161 of Angonltaie

Henry nL= Eleanor k.Lno-1278

Joan of m.

Provence Alexander IL of Scotland

Eleanor

Edward L k.lS7e-i807

Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, d, 1»6

-!

1. WUllam Marshal

the yomiger 8. Simon de Montfort

Margaret=Alexander m. of Scotland

Blchard« Earl of Oomwall, King of the Romans,

Vn. THE DISPUTED SUCCESSION TO THE SCOTTISH THRONE

David I. == Matilda, d. of Waltheof ,

d. 1168

Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon

Henry. Earl of Huntingdon ■ d. ]:S2

MALCOUf IV. WlX^LIAM THS LlON llSa-llOS 1105-1914

David, Earl of Huntingdon

J

. 1 ^

ALBZAlTDBRn. 1814-1949

AuaAHDSBin.

1940-1286

I

MargaretsEMc of

" Norway

Margaret, the

liald of Norway,

<I.190O

r

I

i

Margaret=Alan IsabellasRobert Bruce Ada

I of Galloway I of Annandale m. Henry, I I Baron DevorgulllasJohn Balliol Robert Bruce, I d.1206

n — — f

John baluol, Margaret Robert k. 1992-1996 of GaUoway d. 1806

I _l _ I

Bruce,

Edward Balliol, John Comyn, Robbbt L, claimant to murdered k. 1806-1829

throne, by younger

1839-1866 ^ruceTlaW

David IL 1829-1371

Hastings

Henry Hastings

Jonn Hastings

VnL THE VALOIS SUCCESSION

PhiUpIV., theFair lW-1314

Louis Z. 1814-1816

I

PhiUp V. 1316-1899

Louis IX., d. 1970

Philli

1

Lp nL, 1970-1286

I Charles IV. 1829-1898

Joan

Oharles of Navarre, d. 1889

>im

Jo) d.l8i6

1

Isabella

m. Edward II.

of England

Charles of Valois

Philip VL 18:i8-1360

John the Good 18601864

Edward nL

r^

Charles V.,

the Wise

1864-1880

OENBALOOIOAL TABLES

n. THE BBETON SDOCESSION

Arthur, Dake of Brliuuiy

John de Montfwi

X FAHILT OF EDWABD m. 'KB."*

EDWAitnm. = Fhllli

k.UST-lSTT I

iVIIUbid.

Dukeot

AqultalBa,

Fhlllppa

(n. EdmUDd

Mortimer. Xari

Of Muab

obn oJ Gaunt Edmuad. Thomw,

n. Bteoobe of Duke of Vork, Duke of

d. Ita Gkmeecter.

I d. iw

Blchkrd, Earl of Cambildgck

xl the house of i.ancaster

Hkkkt ill, Edmund CroDchbacb,

Thomas. M Earl o[ LbD' aater. Beheaded at PoDMIract lit ISM

Henrir, Bd Earl of Lancaster.

I ± IB4G

BeDr7i 4th Earl of Lancaster.

Duke o[ Norfolk, and of bin

HiHBTlV. of EDglsknd I k. lan-uil

HKHftr v., uit-iaa

HnntT VL, MO-I4BI. I

.lll^B«>-

Hctmded ChaBlib V. the Emperor and Pwn.ip II. of St»lu

GEKEALOGIOAL TABLES

ZU1

Zn. DESCENT OF THE HOUSE OF YORK

Edwabb ni.

^1

Lionel, Duke of Clarence (8d son), d. 1868

Phlllppa = Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, great grandson of Roger Mortimer of Eklward IL *s reign

Roger, Earl of March, killed In Ireland, 1828

Edmund taken at Brynglas

Elizabeth m. Henry Percy, •'Hotspur'*

Edmmid, Earl of March, d. 1424

Edmund, Duke of York (5th son), d. 1401

Edward, Earl of Rutland, Duke of York, killed at Aglncourt, 1415

Anne = Richard, Earl of Cam-

L bridge, executed 1416 ke of =Clcely Neville York, killed at I Wakefield, 1460

I

Edward IV. = Elizabeth

1401-1488

Woodvllle

I Edmund, Earl of Rutland, slain at Wakefield, 1400

George, Duke of Clarence, mur- dered In prison 1478

Richard ni.,

1488-1486

Edward v., murdered In Tower, 1488

Richard, Duke of York, murdered In Tower, 1488

Elizabeth B HSKRT */Ii.

Xm. THE BEAUPORTS

John of Gaunt = (8) Catherine Swynford Duke of Lan- caster

		John Beaufort,	Henry Beaufort, Thomas Beaufort.
	]	Barl of Somerset,	Bishop of Winchester	Elarl of Exeter,
		d. 1410	and Cardinal,	d. 1430
		John J		d. 1447		mesl^
	Beaufort,	Edmund Beaufort,	Jane = Jai
	1st Duke of Somer-	Duke of Somerset,	of Scotland,
Owen Tudor,	set, d. 1444	killed at Ist battle	1428
ex. after Mor-			of St. Albans,
timer's Cross,			1466
1461	1		Henry	1		iret.
1	I i 1 Beaufort, Edmund John,	Margf
Jasper Tu( or,	Edmund =	^Margaret DukeofSom- Beaufort, d. 1471	m. Humphrey,
Tudor,	erset.	executed Duke of	Earl of
Earl of	Earl of	after Hexham, Somerset,	Stafford
Pem-	Rich-		1464 ex. after
broke,	mond		Tewkesbury,
(11496			1471
				Henry, Duke of
	Hm	RTvn.,		Buckingham,
	148	6-1508			ex. U	188

• ^

XIV

OBKEALOGIOAL TABLES

XIV. THE WOODVILLES

Blchard = JaoquettA of Luxembourg

l8t Earl

Rivers,

d. 1460

Lth<

widow of John of Bedford

Anthony, Jonn, Lord Scales, d. I4m •d Earl Rivers, d.l48S

1 m. John Grey, d, 1461

Lionel, Bishop of Salisbury

;hf

Richard, SdEarl Rivers

Elizabeth

1

nn. I

Thomas.

1st Marquis

of Dorset,

d. IftOl,

ancestor of

Lady Jane

Grey

(other daughters)

2 m. Edwabd rv.

Richard, <i.l488

Edward v.,

murdered

in Tower,

1488

Ricnard, Elizabeth Duke of m.

York, Henht murdered VII. in Tower, 1488

Catherine,

m. William

Courtenay,

Earl of

Devon

(otner daugh- ters)

XV. THE YOUNGER BRANCH OP THE NEVILLES

Richard, Earl of Salisbury, k, at Wakefield, 1460

Richard, Earl of Warwick, the "Klng- Maker,'V*. at Bamet, 1471

J

Jonn, Lord Mon- tague, A. at Bamet,

1471

\

George,

Archbishop

of York

IsabellesGeorge, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV.

Anne=Richard III.

Edward, d. 1484

Edward Plan- tagenet, Earl of Warwick, MB. 1499

I

L

Margaret = Richard Countess of de la Pole, Salisbury, d, Iblb

«X.1M1

XVL THE DE LA POLES

William, wealthy merchant of Kingston, I founder of family in time of £d- I ward III.

Michael, 1st Earl of Suffolk (188S),d. in exile I in Paris, 1388.

Michael. 2d Earl of Suffolk, d. at Har- fleur, 1415.

I

Michael, 8d Earl of Suffolk, fc. at Agin- court, 1416

William = Alice,

4th Earl of Suffolk,

1st Duke of Suffolk (154H),

murdered

at Dom, 1450

grand- daughter of Chaucer

John = Elizabeth

8nd Duke

of Suffolk,

d. 1491

sister of

Edward

IV.

mn.

John, Earl of Lincoln, k, at Stoke, 1487

Edmund, d. 1513

Richard, k. at Pax-la, 1525, m. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury

Henry. Lord Montague, ex, 1589

Reginald, Archbishop of Can- terbury under Mary Tudor, d. 1566

Geoffrey

GEKEALOGIOAL TABLES

XT

XVJL ROYAL DESCENT OF THE STAFFOBDS

EDWARD m.

Thomast Duke of Gloucester (0th son)

Anne = Edmmid Stafford

Homphrey, I>nke of Buckingham, ic. at Northampton, 14fl0

Humphrey, Earl = Ma of Stafford, ifc. at St. Albans, 1455

ret, d. of E!dmund, Diike of Somerset, k. at St. Albans, 1486

Hexiry, Duke of Buckingham, ex, by Richard HL, 1488

Edward, Duke of Buckingham, «x. by Henry VnfTlMl

Henry, Lord Stafford, d, 1502

XVni. THE HOWARDS

John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, I k. at Bosworth, I486

Thomas, EUurl of Surrev, later Duke of

Norfolk, Victor at Hodden,

1518. d. 1684

Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, d. 1554

Heniy, Earl of Surrey, AC by Henry Vm., 1547

Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 0X. 1679

Admiral Edward Howard, k, in 1518

Edmimd William,

Lord Howard of Effingham

Catharine, Admiral

Henry VIIL's Charles Howard

6th wife, of the Armada

ex, 1543 Epoch, d, 1884

Elizabeth = Thomas Boleyn

Anne, 9d wife of

Henry VIIL,

ex. 1580

I

Elizabeth,

Queen of England,

1658-lOra

XIX. THE STUART SUCCESSION. THE SCOTTISH THRONE

ROBERT L, 1306-1329

l_

Dayid n., 1888-1870

Margaret = Walter Stuart (or Stewart)

I Robert n., 1870-1300

Robert HI.. 1800-1400

James L, 1400-1487

James n.. 1437-1400

James UI.. 1400-1488

James IV., 1488-1613

James V., 1613-1542

Mart, 1548-1507 {ex. 1587)

James VI., 1507.1085

(and I. of England 100S-10S6)

Td

OENEALOGIOAL TABLES

THE STUART SUCCESSION. THE ENGLISH THRONE

HBNRT VIL, 14«^1509

I

m. (1) Jambs IV. of Scotland

T»t, eldest daughter m. (2) Axx:hlbald Douglas. Earl of Angus

JAMSS V. = Mary of Oulse of Scotland

ICargaret = Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, d. 1471

Mabt = Henry stua Qneen of Scots I I>aml<

Stuart. Lord ey

Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox

Jambs I., ioos-ieas

ftbelli

Araoella Stuart. d. 1615

XXL THE RIVAL LINES OF STUART>

I

Henry, d. 161S

JTory* //.. 1568-1567

James /.. 1687-1026

I

I Charles /.. 1826-1640

Ellzabeth=Frederlck V. of Palatinate

r

I

CkarUs IL^ Jatnes IJ.^ Mary=WlUiam Henrietta=Phllip. Rupert Maurice Sophia

1649-1686

1685-1701

(C I

of Orange

)

o'.

Duke of Orleans <I.1701

Jamss III,, Anns. MABT:=WiiiLAM m.. Anne Marla= Victor

1701-1766 17QS-1714

H 1

Char Us III. , Henry IX, , 1766-1788 178^1807

168B-1708

Amadeus of Savoy, 1st kine of Sardinia

Charles Emmanuel IIL Victor Amadeus

171.

Ernest Augustus of Hanover

GeoboeI.. 1714-1727

Charles /F., 1807-1810

1

Victor, 1810-1884

Francis IV.. Duke=ifary ///.. 1884-1840 of Modena I

1. The names in Italics indicate the so- called legitimate sovereigns of Great Britain; the date; the time when each was lawfully entitled to the crown accord- ins to the Jacobite theory.

8. Mary giuo England.

r

1

Queen of Scots, according to the legidmist's theory, was Mary IL of

Francis I. , 1840*1 876 Elizabeth =Ferdlnand ,

of Austria I d. 1840 u ^

Louis of Bavaria =Jrary /F.. 1857-

Robert Prince of Wales, ». 1860

M

OEKEALOGIOAL TABLES

ZYll

XZn. THE CLAIMANTS TO THE SPANISH SUOCESSION

King of PhlU

Philip nL = IiCargaret of Hapeburg

~ Spain 160e-]«i

pIV.,ittll«5

BCaria=Ferdinand IL,

I Emperor, 1887-10B7

Elizabeth of Bourbon (1) s (S) Maria Anna <!. 1M5

Louis XIV. a of France 160-1715

— r

I Maria Theresa

Louis, the Dauphin, I d, 1711

Louis, Duke of Burgundy.

Louis XV., 1716-1774

Philip, Duke of Anjou and PhlUp V. of Spain, 1700-17M

Charles n. of Spain, 10n-17OO

Leopold, Emperor, 1066-1706

Margaret Theresa (1) s (S) Eleanor

I

BCaria Antonia, |

m. Maximilian, Joseph I.,

Elector of Emperor,

Bavaria 1706-1711

Joseph Ferdinand, d. 1609

Charles VL, 171M740

Maria Theresa

XXm. DESCENT OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER

CHABLB8 L

OSORGI IV., 1830-1890

Jamss I.

I

Eliza

beth =

Frederick V. , Elector of the Palatinate

Sophia=Eamest Augustus, d. 1714 I Elector of Hanover

Oboboi I., King of England, 1714-1737

OSOBOB n., 1727-1760

Freaerick, Prince of Wales, d. 1751

Geokgk in., 1760-1830

William IV„ 1830-1837

Edward, Duke of Kent, d. 1830

Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover 1837-1851

Victoria =Prlnce Albert, 1837-1001 I of Saxe Coburg

Edward vn., 1901—

II. TABLES OF CONTEMPOEARIES

L OONTEMPORARIES OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND WILLIAM L

10i2-W8f

KINGS or TRANO

Henry L, d. 1000 PliiUpL.luOO-llOB

SMPEBOBS

Henry UI.. d. lOftO Henry IV., 1066-1106

OOUNTS OF FliANDBRS

Baldwin v., father-in-law

of William, d. 1067 Baldwin VI.. 1067—

POPES

Leo IX.. 1018-1054 Victor U..10U-1067 Stephen IX.. 1057>1068 Benedict X., antipope,

1068-1060 Nicolas n., 1050-1061 Alexander II., 1061 1078 Gregory Vn.. 1078-1085 Victor IIL. 1085-1087

KINGS OF SCOTS

Duncan L, 1010 (?) Macbeth, The Usurper.

1010(?)-1051 Malcolm III. Canmore. 1054-1003

Doncan and Macbeth are the characters of Shaks- pere's play.

n. OONTEMPORARIES OF LATER NORMAN AND EARLY ANGEVIN KINGS

10S7-1189

KINGS OF FRANCS

PhlUpL.<f. 1108 Louis VL.d. 1187 Louis Vn..d. 1180 Philip IL. Augustus, k, 1180-1223

BMPBROBS

Henry IV.. d. 1106 Henry v.. d. 1126 LothairII.,d. 1137 Conrad IIL, d, 1153 Frederick L, Barbarossa, «»i|).1158-l 100

KINGS OF SCOTS

Malcolm UL.d. 1003 Donald Bane, k, in 1083 and

again in 1004 Duncan, k. 1004 Edgar. 1007-1106 Alexander L, d. 1124 David L.<t 1158 Malcolm IV.. d. 1105 William the Lion, k, 1165-

1214

PROMINENT ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTBRBURT

Lanfranc. d. 1060 Anselm. 1003-1100 Theobald, 1189-1161 Thomas a Becket, 1162-1170

MORS PROMINENT POPES

Urban IL. d. 1000 PaschallL, d. 1118 Calixtus U., d. 1124 Honorlus II.. d. 1130 Innocent II.. d. 1148 Gelestine II., d. 1144 Hadrian IV.. (the only

English Pope) 1154-1159 Alexander III., d. 1181 Urban UL. d. 1187

PROMINENT CHIEF JUS* TldABS OF ENGLAND

Flambard. 1094-1100 Roger of Salisbury. 1107-

1130 Robert, Earl of Leicester.

1154-1167 Richard de Lucy. 1154-1179 Ranulf deGlanvllle. 1180—

IIL OONTEBiPORARIES OF THE ERA OF THE CHARTER

1189-1272

KINGS OF ENGLAND

Richard L. 1189-1199 John, 1199-1216 Henry IIL, 1S16-1272

KINGS OF FRANCE

PhUip II.. Augustus, d.

Louis Vin.. d. 1226 Louis IX., d. 1270 PhiUpUL. 1270-1285

POPES

Clement m., d. 1191 Innocent IIL, d. 1216 Honorlus IIL, d. 12/7 Gregory IX., d. IMi Innocent IV., 1S64 Alexander IV.. d. 1261

EMPERORS

Frederick I.,Barbarossa,

d. 1190 Henry VL. d. 1198 Philip, d. 1200 Otto t v., 1209-1218 Frederick IL, 1212-1250

ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY

Baldwin, 1185-1190 Hubert Walter. 1193-1205 Stephen Laugton. 1207-

Edmund Rich, 1284-1240 Bonaface of Savoy, 1245- 1270

KINGS OF SCOTS

William the Lion, d. 1214 Alexander II. , d. 1249 Alexander UL, 1249-1286

CHIEF JUSTICIARS OF ENGLAND

Hugh of Puiset, 1189-1190 WiUlam Longchamp.l 190-

llUl Walter of Coutance8,1191-

1194 Hubert Walter, 1194-1196 Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, 1199-

1214 Peter des Roches, 1214-1215 Hubert de Burgh, 1215-1232

(Tbe last of the great justiciars.)

XTiti

TABLES OP COKTEHPOBABIBS

XIX

IV. OONTEMPORABpCS OF EDWARD L

KZirGB OT TBAirCS

PlilUp m., d. 1986 Philip IV., 1235-1314

■MPSBOR8

Rudolph of Hapeburg, d.

1891 Adolph, d. 1808 Albert, 1886-1306

KnroB or castilb

Alphonao Z., the Wise, d.

1284 Sancho IV., the Great, d.

1906 Ferdinazid IV.

KIN08 OT BOOTS

Alexander UI., d, 1286 John Balliol, k, 1898-1296 Robert L, k, 1806-1309

PBOMINSNT POPSB

Gregory X., 1971-1276 Nicolas nL, 1277-1281 Martin IV.. 188M885 Honorius IV.. 1286-1889 Nicolas IV.. 1889-1292 Bonaface VIU. 1294-1303 Benedict XL, 18U3-1306 Clement V., 1306—

▲BOHBIHHOPS OV GANTEHBURY

Robert Kilwardby, 1273-

1278 John Peckham, 1879-1299 Robert Winchelsey. 1894

FAlfOUB MEN

(Not princes)

Roger Bacon, d. 1278 Dante Allghleri, 6. 1966,

d. 1381 'WimamWallace. M274(*)

d. 1306 Marco Polo, b, 1864, d. 1324

KUrOB OV FRANCE

PhlUp IV., d. 1314 Loul8X.,<l.l316 PhmpV.,d. 1382 Charles IV., d. 1328 PhlUp VL, d. 1860 John. d. 1864 Charles V., d, 1380

V. CONTEMPORARIES OF EDWARD UL

1907-1400

EMPEBOR8

Henry VII., d, 1313 Ix>uis XIV., d. 1347 Charles IV.

KINGS OT CASTIIiB

Ferdinand IV., d.

1318 Alphonso XI., d,

1350 Pedro the Cruel, d,

1368 Henry IL

KINGS or SCOTS

Robert L.d. 1329 David IL, d, 1370 Robert n.

POPES

Era of "Babylonian Captivity."

Began with Clement V., 1306-1314, and ended with Gregory XL, 1370-137& No great popes.

FAMOUS MEN NOT SOYEBEIONS

James van Arteveldt,1286-

134.5 Thomas Brad wardin, 1890- 1349. The mathemati- cian, consecrated Arch- bishop of Canterbury in 1349, but died forty days later of the plague. Cola di Rienzi, 1318-1^ Stephen Marcel, d. 1358 Francesco Petrarch, 1304-

1374 Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313- 1375

Edward Prince of Wales,

"the Black Prince,"

133U-1376 Bertrand du Guesclin,

1320(?>1380 John WycUf, 1324-1381 William Langland, 1330( ?)

-1400(?) Geoffrey Chaucer, 1340(?)-

1400 Jean Froissart, 1337-1410

VL PROMINENT CHARACTERS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

1400 1500

KINGS OF ENGLAND

Henry IV., 1389-1413 Henry V.. 1418-1488 Henry VL, 1428-1461 and

14701471 Edward IV., 1461-14B3 Richard lU., 1483-1485 Henry VIL, 14^1509

BMPEBOBS

Sigismond. 1410-1438 Frederick IIL, 1440-1493 Maximllllan L, 1493-1619

SOVEREIGNS OF SPAIN (CASTILE AND ABAGON)

Ferdinand the Catholic,

14'n»-15l6 Isabella, joint soyerelgn

with Ferdinand, 1479

1504

•

KINGS OF FRANCE

Charles VL, 1380-1423 Charles VU.. 1483-1461 Louis XL, 1461-1483 Charles VIU., H83-1498 Louis XIL. 1496-1616

FAMOUS CHARACTERS NOT KINGS

John Huss, d. 1414 Joan of Arc, d. 1431 Gutenberg, d. 1468 Richard of Warwick, the

" King Maker." d. 1471 Charles the ''Rash," d,

1477 Caxton, d. 1491 Lorenzo de Medici, d. 1^ Savonarola, d. 1496 Columbus, d, 1606

TABLES OF OOlirTEMPOBABIES

Vn. PROBflNENr CXDNTEMPORARIBS OF THE TT7DORS

ISOO-IBOO

EZNGB or FRANC!

Francis I., d. 1547 Henry U., d. 1560 Francis II., tf. 1500 Charles IX., (1.1574 Henry HI., d. 1580 Henry IV., c^ 1010

sPAnr

THE BMPIRB

Charles

I. of Spain, 1510-

1550 Philip n., (i. 1506 Philip in.,150&-

V. of the Empire,

1510-1568 Ferdinand I., 1558-

1504 Maximilllan II.,

1504-1570 Rudolph IL,157fr-

POPES

Clement VII., 1523-

1534 Paul UL, 1534-1560 Julius lU., 1550

1555 Paul IV., 1556-1.'>{>9 Plus IV., 1550-1566 Plus v., 1566-1572 Gregory XIII.,

167^1585 Siztus v., 1585-1500

8COTLAKD

/ames V., d, 1548

Mary deT>08ed 1507, d. 1687

James VL, 1507-1625

ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY

William Warham, 1504-

1688 Thomas Cranmer, 1533-

1660 Beginald Pole, 15601558 Matthew Parker. 1550-1570 Edmund Grlndal, 1570-1583 John Whitgift, 1583-1004

SGIBNTISTS, DISCOVERERS AND NAYIOATORS

iUbuquerque, d. 1515 Vasco da Gama, d. 1584 Copernicus, d. 1543 Frobisher, d. 1504 Drake, d. 1500 Raleigh, d, 1018

RUSSIA

Ivan IV.. the Terrible, d, 1584

CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND

Thomas Wolsey, 1515-1520 Sir Thomas More, 1520-

1538, d, 1535 Thomas Wrlothesley,1544 •

1547 Stephen Gardiner, 1563-

IffiO

Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1558- 1570

PAINTERS

Leonardo da Vinci, d. 1510 Raphael, d, 1580 Michael Angelo, d, 1503

THE NETHERLANDS

William, the Silent, as- sassinated, 1584

REFORMERS

Tyndale, d. 1530 Zwingli, d. 1531 Luther, d. 1540 Loyola, ± 1550 Cafviji, d. 1504 Knox, d. 1578

LITERART MEN

Spenser, d. 1500 Shakspere, d. 1610 Cervantes, d, 1010

Vm. CONTEMPORARIES OF THE EARLY STUARTS

leoo-ieco

KINGS OF FRANCE

xfenry IV., d. 1010 IjOuisXin.,^. 1043 lK>ulsXIV.

BRANDENBURG

Frederick William, the Great Elector, 1040-1088

EMPERORS

ACatthlas, d. 1010 Ferdinand n., d, 1037 Ferdinand IIL

KING OF SWEDEN

Gustavus Adolphus, 1011- 1038

THE PALATINATE

Frederick IV., the "Up- right," d. 1010

Frederick V., the "Winter King," son-in-law of James L, d. 1088

POPES

Paul v., 1005-1021 Gregory XV., 1021-1083 Urban VIIL, 1023-1044 Innocent X, 1044-1065 Alexander VIL, 1066-1007

KINGS OF DENMARK AND NORWAY

Christian IV., d. 1048 Frederick III.

SPAIN

Philip in.,d. 1021 Philip IV.

EMINENT FOREIGNERS (NOT SOVEREIGNS)

Wallensteln, d. 1034 RicheUeu, d. 1042 Descartes, d. 1650 Mazarin MoUdre

TABLES OF OONTBlfPOBABIBS

MKff UflNBNT nr TBM SH0LI8H BTBUOOIJi

I>*raiici8 Baoon, d. 1896 George Vllllera, Duke of

Backlnghain. d. 1028 Edward Coke, d. 1684 Jolin Eliot, d. 1638 Thomas Wentworth, EUirl

of Strafford, d, 1641 John Hamixlen, d. 1643 Lucius Cut, Viscount

Falkland, (i. 1648

John Pym, <f. 1648

William Laud, Archhish- op of Canterbury, d. 1646

BoDert Devereux, Earl of Essex, d. 1646

Ferdlnando Fairfax, Bar- on Fairfax, d. 1648

Stai Living in mo

Thomas Fairfax Alexander Leslie. Earl of

Leven David Leslie, Lord New*

ark John Milton Henry Vane Bupert, Prince of the

Palatinate Oliver Cromwell Edward Hyde

CL OONTEMFOBABIES OF THE LATEB STUABTS

iSSO-TJH

KINO OV IBAKCB LouiaXIV.,<2.1715

BMPBBOBS

Ferdinand m., d.

Leopold L, d. 1706 Charles VL,(i. 1740

KINGS or sPAnr

PhlUp IV., d. 1665 Charles IL, d. 1700 PhiUpV.,a. 1746

BU88IA

Peter the d.1786

Great,

BMiifmT

FOBlaGHIBS

(not Sovereigns)

Biazarin, d. 1661 Moliere, d. 1673 Colbert, d. 1688 Comellle, d. 1688 Racine. dL 1609

BBANDSNBUBG, PRUSSIA

^Vederick William, " the Great Elector ,** < d.1688

FiMerick L, King of Prussia, d. 1713

Frederick William I., d.1740

KMINSNT SNGLISHMBN

Milton, d, 1674 Clarendon, d. 1674 Shaftesbury, d.

1688 Bunyan, d. 1688 Dryden, d, 1700 Locke, d. 1704

Addison, d. 1710 Marlborough, d.

1722 Newton, d. 1737 Defoe, d. 1731 Pope, d. 1744 Smft.d: 1746

pie.

a lip iii'is sties'

|gsi! s-i^ai ^iiiii

!l III

islsil °isl|i!

lit!

i Hi II d^ll

Bliss £|illl

.S|i-|||fi|

ili-illllS

TABLES ILLU8TBATIK0 THB ENGLISH CONSTITUTION XXUI

n. THE MODERN CABINET

(1) Th€ following officer* are alumyi membert

1. The First Lord of the Treasury

% The T^rd Chancellor

8. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 4. The Lord President of the Council 6. The Home Secretary

6. ThejSecretary for Foreign Affairs

7. The First Lord of the Admiralby

{2) The following are usually member $

& The Lord Privy Seal

9. The Colonial Secretary

10. The Secretary for India

11. The Secretary for War

12. The President of the Board of Trade

18. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

(9) T?u following are sometimes members

14. The Postmaster General

15. The Chief Secretary for Ireland

]& The President of the Local Oovemment Board

Note—ODe minister is known as the Prime Minister, because he is first appointed by the Crown. He then in turn fills the other offices, retaining one for himself. There is no rule, however, which assigns him to any one office. Usually the office selected is First Lord of the Treasury, but Salisbury twice (preferred the office of Foreign Secre- tary. In 1900 he vacated the office of Foreign Secretary for that of Lord Privy Seal. Gladstone Joined the office of First Lord of the Treasury to that of Chancellor of the Exchequer.

m. THE MODERN PARLIAMENT

A. THi Housi OF Lords

Consists of

Total

20 Lords spiritual

16 Scottish representative peers elected for present

parliament 28 Irish representative peers elected for life 510 Hereditary ];)eers of the United Kingdom (the

number constantly changing)

580 members

B. Thi Housi or Commons ( 496 members from England and Wales (a) Consists of < 72 members from Scotland

( 103 members from Ireland

Total G70

or, (&) Consists of

I

377 members from counties 284 members from boroughs 9 members from universities

Total 670

IV. THE MODERN JUDICIARY aN ENGLAND)*

Ths Supbsmk Coubt or Appeals is the House of Lords acting through a per- manent committee consisting of the Lord Chancellor, Peers who have been Judges of Superior Courts in' England, Ireland, and Scotland, and four Law Lords, or Lords of Appeal in ordinary, appointed by the Crown on nomination of the Prime Minister to life membership in Peerage with the rank of Baron.

>The Judicial systems of Scotland and the other parts of the British Empire differ materially fiom that of England. For description see Courtenay Working Constitv- Uon of ths United Kingdom,

ZX17 TABLES ILLUSTRATING THE BNOLISH CONSTITUTION

n. Thb CoxmT or Appbaii Is compoeed of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rous, the President of the Probate Division of the High Court and flve Lords Justices. The first three are nominated by the Prime Minister, the others by the Lord Chancellor.

m. Thk High Coubt> is organized in three divisions, as follows:

A Thb King's Bknch Division,

1.

% 8.

Composed of Lord Chief Justice and fourteen other Judges, whose fimctions are To hold assizes in the counties.

(1) Twice a year for civil cases.

(2) Four times a year for criminal

cases. To try original cases in London. To hear appeals from lower courts and applications for new trials.

B. Thb Pbobatb,

DrVOBCB, AND Ad-

MiBALTT Division

Consists of Presi- dent and one other Judge, exercises jurisdiction of for- mer ecclesiastical courts over probate of wills and divorce, and aJso the Juris- diction of the for- mer Admiralty Court

I C. ThbChanceby Division

Composed of the Lord Chancellor and six Judges.

XV. Thb Cottntt Coubts (Ctvil) composed of Judges appointed by Lord Chancellor, competent n) to try claims up to £60, or, by consent, to higher sums; (2) to administer in Equity and Bankruptcy up to £S00.

(?!

If sums involved exceed £5, trial by Jury may be claimed.

If sums exceed £20, appeal may be carried to High Court on point of law.

y. QuABTBB Sbssions (Cbiminal) composod of magistrates of the county, and is competent

(1) to hear appeals against conviction in lower courts.

(2) to try by Jury persons committed by lower courts. (8) subject to appeal to High Court in points of law.

In counties, is com- posed of Chairman of uounty Council .Chair- man of District Coun- cil and Justices of the Peace appointed by Lord Chancellor, any two of whom may constitute a court which—

VL CouBT or Pbttt Sbssions

B. In ordinary boroughs, is composed of the Mayor ex-offlcio, the ex-Mayor for one year after service, and Jus- tices of the Peace ap- I)ointed by Lord Chan- cellor, any two of whom may constitute a court which—

C. In London and the largest boroughs, composed of stipen-

DIABT MAGISTRATES

appointed by the

Home Secretaiy. any one of whom may con- stitute a court which—

(1) May take cognizance of jwtty offenses, imixMing jwnalty not exceeding six

months* imprisonment.

(2) For grave offenses mav commit for trial at Quarter Sessions or at Assizes of

the King's Bench Division of the High Court.

vn Thb Cobonbb's Coubt

The Coroner is a county oflloer appointed by County Council, to hold inquest in ease of violent or sudden death within nis district, and in case of finding by jury, to issue writ for arrest of persons charged with murder, who are then brought up upon Coroner's charge at the next Assizes.

>With the exce];>tlon of the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, the Jus- tices of the High Court are appointed on nomination of the Lord Chancellor.

TABLBS ILLUSTBATIKa THB BKGLISH OOVSnTUTIOir XXT

V. LOCAIi ADIONISTBATION

In Great Britain and Ireland has been intrusted by Parliament to the following

Conncils:

I

L THl COUNCIL

OF TH» County

OF LONDON

Ths Council OF London O'the City")

II. The CouifciLS of County Bobouohs (boroughs having a

population or

60,000 and up, except

the boroughs of

London County)

III. ThbCouncilb

OF THB Counties

(excluding I. and II.)

1

The Councils of boroughs within County of London, ex- cluding ''the City"

distbict Councils

BoBouoH Council (excepting the smallest boroughs)

Parish Councils (for larger parishes)

Periodic parish meetings (for smaller parishes)

A. In general the several 0)uncils, whether County or Borough, outside of the City of

London, are:

1. Comi)06ed of

(1) A number of Councillors elected by the ratepayers, men or women, for a term of three years, so arranged as to tenure that one-third of the number are elected each vear«

(S) A number of Aldermen selected by the Ck>uncillors to the number of one-third the whole number of Councillors and holding office for six years.

% Intrusted with such matters of local administration as would naturally fall to such bodies, i.€. for the boroughs, lighting, water supply and ix>lice; for the counties, care of county buUdlxigs, the constabulary, bridges, sanatation, etc. ; for the parishes, poor relief ,nlghways, etc.

B. The governing body of the (^ty of London is comiwsed of

1. A body of Common (3ouncilmen elected annually by the ratepayers of the

twenty-six wards. %. A C^UBT OF Aldebmen, comi)06ed of twenty-six Aldermen, elected one

from each of the twenty-six wards and to hold office for life. 8. The LOBD Mayob, chosen annually by the liverymen of the city guilds in

oo5peration with the Coubt of Aldebmen and confirmed by the Crown.

yoU—Var ordinary purposes the Aldermen meet with the Councilmen.

C. The Council of the C^itnty of London is composed of

^l

Four Councillors from the city and two from each of the boroughs. The Aldermen, in number equal to one-sixth the whole number of Council- lors.

D. The powers and functions of the various COundls of the COunty of London are variously limited and do not exactly correspond to those of corresponding bodies in the other counties and boroughs. Thus the poor relief in London County is managed by an Independent board elected for this purpose. The Metropolitan Police force outside of the city, also, is under the Jurisdiction of the Home Secretary.

XXVI PROMINENT BRITISH STATESBCEN OF MODERN TIMES WHO

HAVE ENTERED THE PEERAGE

When date of assomliig title is important it is given in parentheses. Courtesy titles are given in quotation marks.

Aberdeen, E . of • George Hamilton Gk>rdon. tL 188a

Albemarle, D. of, (1660) George Monk d. 197a

Althorp, see Spencer

Ashley, see SAc^ftesbury

Beaconsfleld, E. of, (1876) Benjamin Disraeli d. 1881.

Bolingbroke, V., (1714) Henry St. John. d, 1751.

Bute, £. of John Stuart d,n92

Carmarthen, see Leeds

Castlereagh, see Londonderry

CJhatham, E. of William Pitt d. 1778.

Chesterfield, E. of Philip Dormer Stanhope d. 1778.

Clarendon. E. of, (1660) Edward Hyde d. 1674.

Clyde, B.,(1858) CoUnCampbeU. d. 1863.

Dalhousle, E. of , (1860) Fox Maule Ramsay (1882), Baron Panmure d, 1874.

Danby, see Leeds

Derby, E. of, (1861) Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, Baron Stanley.^. 1869.

Devonshire, D. of, (1891) Spencer Compton Cavendish, ''Marquis of Hart-

ington"

Olenelg, B., (1836) CTharles Grant d, 1866.

Goderich, see Bipon

Grey, E Charles Grey, Viscount Howlck. d. 1846.

Granville, E., (1744) John Carteret, Baron Carteret d. 1763.

Guilford, E. of, (1690) Frederick North, * 'Lord North** d, 1792.

Hartington. aee Devonshire

Halifax, M. of George Savile d. 1695.

Halifax, E.of Charles Montague, Baron Halifax, (1700) d, 173a

Howick, see Orey

Lansdowne, M. of. (1784) William Petty, Earl of Shelbume, (1781) d. 1805.

Lansdowne, M. of Henry Petty-FltzMaurice d. 1863.

Latimer, see Leeds

Londonderry, M. of, (1821) Robert Stewart. ''Viscount Castlereagh" d. 1822.

Leeds, D. of Thomas Osborne, Lord Latimer, Earl of Danby,

Marquis of Carmarthen d. 1606.

Mahon, see Stanhope

Marlborough, D. of, (1702) John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, (1689) . . d. 1722.

Melboiume. V William Lamb rf. 1848.

Melville, v., (1802) Henry Dundas. d. 1811.

Newcastle, D. of Thomas Pelham d, 1768,

North, see OuUford

Nottingham, see Winchelsea

Oxford, E.of. (1711) Robert Harley d. 1724.

Palmerston, V Henry John Temple. d. 1865.

Panmure, see Dalhousie

Portland, D. of William Henry Cavendish Bentlnck. d. 1809.

Ripon. E. of, (1838) Frederick John Robinson, Viscount Ck>derlcb,

(yvany.. d. i859.

Rockingham, M. of CTharles Watson Wentworth. d, 1782.

Rosebery, E. of Archibald Philip Primrose

Russell, E., (1861) John Russell, *'Lord John Russell** d, 1878.

Salisbury, M. of, (1868) Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil. "Lord

Robert Cecil, ""ViscoimtCranboume" (1866).

Sandwich, E.of. John Montague. d. 1792.

Shaftesbury. E. of, (1672) Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley d, 1683.

Shelbiune, E. of. see Lansdoume

Shrewsbury, D. of, (1694) CTharles Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury d. 1718.

Sidmouth.V., (1806) Henry Addlngton d. 1844.

Spencer, E., (1834) John Charles Spencer, •'Viscoimt Althorp" d. 1845.

Stanhope, e:. Philip Henry Stanhope, "Lord Mahon" d. 187.^

Sunderland, E. of. (1643) Robert Spencer d. 1702.

Wellington. D. of, (1814) Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington, (1809,)

Earl and Marquis of Wellington, ( 1812) . . ..d. 1852. Winchelsea. E. of Daniel P^ch, Earl of Nottingham d. 173a

• D. s Duke. M. = Marquis. E. = EarL V. = Viscount B. = Baron.

^' : r^.

A

HISTORY OF EI^GLAND

FOR SCHOOLS

PART I— TEUTONIC ENGLAND

THE ERA OF NATIONAL FOUNDATION

FBOM EARLIEST TIMES TO 1049

CHAPTER I

AKGIBKT BRITAIN AND THE TEUTONIC OCCUPATION

The entire area of the British Islands, roughly estimated, is abont one hundred and twenty thousand square miles. Of this, England occupies less than one-half, about fifty-eight thousand square miles; not a very large country as modem states go. And yet, what has been lacking in size, has been more than made up by physical conditions, the most favor- able to vigorous and prosperous national life. An insular position, midway in the north temperate zone, provides a climate tempered, yet invigorated by ocean breezes, and supplying that most urgent of agricultural needs, an abundant and regular rainfall. The soil is diversified with mountain, river, and lowland; and under intel- ligent tillage, is generally capable of great fertility. To resources of soil and favorable climatic conditions, is also to be added a vast wealth in minerals. Above all, and of the greatest political importance, the continuous boundary of ocean and channel, by

protecting the people from foreign interference, has afforded

1

2 A^OIENT BRITAIN AND THB TBUTONIO OCOUPATIOK

opportunity for the deyelopment of unique political and sooial infititutions, the normal unfolding of a healthy national life. The long seaboard, moreover, set with numerous and commodioua harbors, has naturally suggested commerce and naval enterprise; offered a ready outlet for a population straitened by inflexible natural boundaries, but peculiarly energetic and adventure loving; and inspired those vast schemes of colonization, which have resulted in the founding of a Greater Britain beyond the seas.

The population of the British Islands represents in about equal proportions the two great branches of the Aryan race, who have taken possession of central and western Europe, — the Celts and the Teutons. To the first belong the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, and the Manx; to the second the English. The Celts, who were the first to come, found another race, the Iberians, in occupation before them ; these they did not exterminate, but absorbed. The Teutons in turn overwhelmed the Celts, and while they probably expelled them entirely from the eastern parts of the island, in the west and the north Celt and Teuton rapidly blended, until to-day they so shade into each other that it is difficult to tell where Celtic Britain begins, or Teutonic Britain leaves off.

The Celts who settled in Britain, represented only two divisions, or branches, of the race: the Ooidels^ or OaelSy and the The catut Britons. The Gaels are now represented by the peo- BHHsh^^ pie of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands; the Britons, Islands. by the Welsh. A map of the British Islands at the close of the era of migration, however, would show in the hands of the Britons, middle and southern Britain from the Firth of Forth to the Channel and most of northern Wales; in the hands of the Gaels, the modem Cornwall, southern Wales, Anglesey and the adjoining peninsula, the Scottish Highlands, Man, and Ireland. These people had crossed the Channel in a long series of migrations which extended over several centuries. The last of these was still recent when Caesar began his careei in Gaul.

The Celts understood agriculture, but their chief wealth con- sisted in cattle. They also discovered the mineral resources of

BOMAlf BBITAIK 8

\t new home, for which, especially the tin, they fonnd a ly market among the peoples of the Mediterranean. Like their kindred of 6anl they were divided into scores

woekA of petty tribal families, each family held together by a theoretical kinship to a tribal chief. There were B and interpreters of laws ; but beyond the tribal family there ( no judicial machinery by which intertribal quarrels might be nated, or offenses might be punished. Hence the tribal chief- is were erer quarreling among themselyes and never able to lore a lasting peace or a permanent political union. Soon after the close of the era of migration the Celts of tain began to attract the attention of the Romans, who had ^^. recently conquered the Celtic tribes south of the mmL Channel, and in the first century of the Christian era the tribes who dwelt south of the Forth were ipelled to submit to the Boman yoke. A vigorous attempt \ made by Agricola to conquer the Gaels, or Caledonians as the nans then called them, who dwelt north of the Forth, but ^ although, at a place called Mens Oraupius, he secured

iv*«.»* one of the most brilliant victories won by Boman 18 since the days of Julius Caesar, it was impossible to reduce population who dwelt in the mountain fastnesses, and the line the Forth and the Clyde was finally accepted as the northern indary of Boman Britain, and secured by a series of elaborate dfications of which the famous wall connecting the deep waters Qie Solway with the Tyne formed the base. The part of the island which lay south of the wall the Bomans d for nearly four hundred years. They did much for the ^^ conquered people; they put an end to the disas- '"^ trous tribfd feuds and greatly improved economic I social conditions. Tet their relations to Britain were too <ch like those of the modem English to India — essentially a itary occupation of a foreign country inhabited by a subject nilation. The final results, also, were similar. No new and rerful nationality rose from the wreck of the old independent tiflh states. Instead, even 'Hhe remembrance of past inde- idence" faded away; the sense of nationality disappeared;

4 AKCIEKT BRITAIN AND THB TEUTOKIO OCGUPATIOST

individuality was destroyed ; all capacity for self-help was stifled in the languor and hopeless apathy generated hy a system of paternalism which insisted upon doing everything for its depend- ents, and sternly frowned down every eflfort at self-help.

As long as the Eomans maintained their military prestige these disastrous results of paternalism were not apparent. The legions held the northern barbarians at bay from behind the northern walls, while the Britons tilled their fields in peace. But with the decline of Boman arms the Gaels of the High- lands, uniting with bands of wild Scots from across the Irish Sea, Gaels also, who then dwelt on the eastern coast of Ireland, ' began to break over the walls' and descend upon the Lowlands of the south, to bum and ravage the country and retire again with troops of captives and herds of cattle. Small piratical fleets, also, fitted out by the people who dwelt along the estuaries of the Weser and the Elbe, the Saxons^ began to find their way westward and make similar depredations upon the eastern coasts. The Roman' Celts apparently took little part in the defense of the country, and when at last in the early fifth century the Romans withdrew altogether from the land which they could no longer protect, the -. subject population was utterly unable either to defend itself or 1 to assume the burden of maintaining public order. A wild panio seized the people; all who could, the most of the Roman; population and the wealthier class of the Britons^ left the island r and withdrew to the continent. The tillers of the soil, the slave and the serf, the poor, the artisans and mechanics, only were left. ' All the conservative elements of society, the so-called "respectable! elements," the men who made the laws and supported the courts,* were gone. Civil authority disappeared; the country rapidly} reverted to barbarism and anarchy. A crop of guerrilla kings, ; the representatives of violence and disorder, sprang up in the place of the lapsed civil order, plundering the people and warrinjf upon each other whenever the barbarians afforded them a respite.

The Picts and Scots in the meanwhile kept up their inroads, wasting the regions that lay nearest them, and since they attempted to make no permanent settlements within the old Boman territories, soon reduced the northern provinces to i^ .

THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT 5

desolate wilderness. The Saxons, howeyer, with the kindred peoples, the Jates and Angles, kept coming in ever greater num-

T«utoiite ^^®' '^^^^^ ^^ ^^® opening of the seventh century they eonmiestand had not Only taken possession of southern and eastern Britain, but had entered the Hamber and extended their settlements over the regions wasted by the Picts. The victory of the Saxon Ceawlin at Deorham in the Severn valley in 577, may be regarded as closing the era of conqnest in the south. The capture and destruction of Chester in 613 by the Angle, Ethelfrid, may be regarded as closing the era of conquest in the north. Of all Roman Britain, West Wales, or Cornwall, North Wales, or Wales proper, and Strathclyde, alone remained in the hands of the Celts.

The new-comers, the ancestors of the present English, were of pure Teutonic stock, and belonged to a group of tribes who had long occupied lands about the lower Elbe and along the Danish peninsula. The Saxons, the first to enter Britain, settled along the estuaries of the later Essex, and gradually pushing their way westward, finally occupied the entire Thames basin and descended into the valley of the lower Severn. They also turned south and uniting with other tribes who had settled along the coast, founded the later Wessex and Sussex. The Jutes whose traditional landing at Thanet is given at about 450 a.d., were the second to arrive. They took possession of the modem Kent, the Isle of Wight, and the mainland opposite, the modern Hampshire. The Angles, the last to arrive, settled at first along the coasts of the modern Nor- folk and Suffolk, the ancient East Anglia. Later comers entered the Humber and by following the Trent penetrated far down into mid-Britain, establishing the group of Anglian communities known as Mercia. Others still turned north and advancing as far as the Forth, founded the two Northumbrian states, known as Bemicia and Deira.

Thus, by the close of the sixth century, the Teutons had established themselves in the Lowlands of Britain. It had taken them, however, two hundred years to accomplish what Roman legionaries had accomplished in four years. This was due not to the stubborn resistance of the Britons, for the Britons had

0 ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE TEUTONIO OCCUPATION

long since ceased to be capable of resistance, but wholly to the method of the Teatonic advance. The Germans had settled in The method ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^7 ^^^ settled on the Bhine when Caesar Ifeutfmio knew them, not under any common king, or in one oom- advancc p^ct horde, but in detached tribes or kindreds; each kindred or maegth^ moving out for itself, as it needed more room, driving the skeleton British population on before it, taking what lands its present need demanded, and here settling as a kind of frontier colony and giving its name to the surrounding region. Each colony was thus an independent state, living under its own local laws and under the government of its own elective chieftains, or ealdormen^ but ready to unite in loose confederation with neighboring and similar communities, whenever threatened by common danger. They then selected some chieftain, renowned in war or in council, who led the allied hosts to battle, and for the time exercised a regal authority. The Saxon Ceawlin was such a war chief, certainly not the first, but probably the first to unite all the Saxon tribes west of the Chilterns under one leadership.

Of the ancient laws and institutions of the new-comers, directly we know little. Nothing, however, has yet been advanced to show that they differed materially from the institu- En{iibih tions of the Teutonic tribes who were knov\Ti to Caesar and Tacitus. Monogamy was the rule; woman- hood was honored; children were loved and cherished. Each tribe or kindred was a small state by itself, sufficient to all the needs of local government. The male members of the com- munity, the free warriors, were both citizens and soldiers. They met under arms in an assembly, or folkmote^ to discuss matters of general importance. In this capacity they were also a court to try serious offenses against the customary laws of the tribe. Here, too, the young warrior was formally initiated by appropriate ceremonies into the company of free citizens. In this assembly, also, they elected the ealdormen, the principes of Tacitus, whose duty it was to make regular circuits through the settlements, appre- hending criminals and holding courts of justice. In this service they were attended by a body of select companions, the comifalus^ who assisted in capturing and trying criminals and enforcing the

EARLY ENGLISH INSTITUTIOKS 7

laws. These companions, the gesithsy were bound by special oath to support their chief in the performance of his duties. They lived at his table, and for this the other members of the tribe brought their regular gifts; thus recognizing the public nature of the seryice of the ealdorman and his companions and the common obligation of supporting them. In time of war the ealdorman with his following of gesiths formed the nucleus of the host. The several magistrates together formed a tribal council, the germ of the later national witenagemot. It was their custom to come together while the free warriors were gathering for the folkmote, as a sort of preliminary council to prepare the business which was to be submitted to the people. Of kings in the later sense, the early Germans of Britain had none, though the germ out of which the king subsequently developed is to be found in the common chieftain elected by several tribes on the eve of a gen- eral war. His powers, however, were only temporary, and when the war was ended his authority ceased, and the confederating tribes again fell apart, each pursuing its independent life as before.

Of the freemen there were two classes, eorls and ceorh. The eorl was a noble, but his nobility seems to have entitled him only

to a precedence in rank. His life, also, was protected cfthe by a higher wergeld, the fine or indemnity which the

murderer or his family paid to the family of his victim. The ceorl was the simple freeman, whose political liberty was attested by his right of meeting with his fellows for public business with arms in his hands. Chattel slavery as it existed among the Bomans was never popular among the Germans. Servitude, however, was by no means uncommon, but it took a form of serfage, wherein a tenant and his heirs were bound to perform certain services for a master who was at the same time owner of the soil. Tacitus compares the position of tlie German slave to that of the Roman colonus^ who in Tacitus's day was really a free tenant whose home was protected by law, and whose right of marriage was recognized. We have no way of knowing what the relative proportion of the unfree was to the free until the time of the Domesday Survey; but then the organization of

8 ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE TEUTONIC OCCUPATION

•

Englisli society had become very complex compared with that of the primitiye Teutonic tribes, and the servile condition itself had been differentiated into a series of degrees, or gradations, the dis- tinctions of which are obscure. It is not unlikely that the numbers of the servile population were largely recraited from the ranks of the conquered Britons. Serritnde was also frequently prescribed by the courts as a penalty for crime. It may be that in the more thickly populated part^ of Britain, the south and west, where Teutonic occupation was more after the nature of a conquest, the stranger population was superimposed upon an older servile population. It may be, also, that the members of this servile population were of German blood, and represented the results of earlier Soman conquests beyond the Rhine and the upper Danube, when whole nations were corralled and deported to distant parts of the empire and settled as colonic or tenant farmers. Thousands of these unwilling settlers had been intro- duced into Britain.

The tribal state was subdivided into judicial districts, which seem at first to have had various names in different parts of The Teutonic Britain. For simplicity we may call thifl

Hundred. subdivision the hundredy although the name, though known on the continent, does not appear in tlie laws of England until the time of Eds^ar. Undoubted traces of the

959-975.

institution, however, arc to be found as early as the time of Tacitus, and it may be taken as one of the most charac- teristic features of the early Teutonic state. Here at regular intervals, every four weeks, as fixed by the laws of Edgar, the freemen of the district came together in tlie hiindredgemot^ con- stituting a court, in which civil suits were tried, or quarrels between neighbors were adjusted.

Below the hundred was the town, or tun. The town consisted of a cluster of dobiehed dwellings, each with its court, or door- yard, stables, and outhouses. The adjacent lands also belonged to the town. Here the freeman possessed a shifting severalty in the arable land, and a share in the common use of meadow and woodland. The town also liad its popular assembly or tungemot. The tungemot does not seem to have been

EARLY LAND TENUBE 9

a ciTil court like the hundredgemot; its fanctions were economic rather than judicial.

When the period of the Anglo-Saxon codes began, private ownership of land was already recognized; yet, if the progress Oumenhip of Ocrmonic institutions on the continent be con- 'f'^ sidered, we may believe that in Britain also the lands of each settlement were at first held by the freemen in com- mon; but with the increase of population the exclusiye right of individuals to particular pieces of land was allowed. Two forms of tenure were recognized: land held under the ordinary law, or by folkright, and hence folklandy and land held under special privileges secured by charter or grant, that is, land held by bookright, and hence bookland.

The new-comers were a simple people, knowing little of the arts of civilized life, bnt much of forest craft; living under their Btttaitnu curious old laws of custom, yet far removed from *'"**'"'** the condition of the mere savage. They had their traditions and war songs; bnt knew nothing of letters. They had also their conceptions of deity, but worshiped God as they saw him revealed in the wild tumult of the storm, or the wilder tumult of their own rude natures. They knew nothing of temples, but reared their altars in the silence of the sacred grove, or upon some lonely hill top. Here they sought to solve the mysteries of their own lives, in offerings, sometimes of human victims, more often of the animals supposed to be the favorites of their special deities. These deities were the great gods, Tia, Wotan, or Odin, and Donar, or Thor. There were also a multi- tude of lesser deities.

They loved war and the chase, and constantly manifested their contempt for a life which was hard and rigorous at best. They lived upon milk and cheese, the flesh of their herds and the quarry, and the products of a limited agriculture. They could not have been very cleanly in their habits. The word itch^ as also the common names of most of the well-known '^dirt diseases,^' are old English names. But so are the words cleaiiy wholesome^ healthy^ hale^ and hearty. Possibly the former were winter words, associated with the dreary months when the people were compelled

10 THE C0NFEDEEACIE8 OF TEUTONIC BBITAIK

to hive themselves with their cattle in close dens or caverns for protection from the weather; while the latter were summer words, associated with joyous days when open fields and fresh winds, springing flowers and flowing streams invited the people to a dif- ferent life. All in all they were very human, these first Teutonic settlers of Britain, and not very different from what the people who dwell upon their lands to-day would be under similar circum- stances.

CHAPTER II

THE RIVAL CONFEDERACIES OF TEUTONIC BRITAIN, AND THB FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL CHURCH

By the close of the sixth century all the most fertile parts of the island had been seized ; but the crowding of population upon population continued, and soon embroiled the new new^era!^^^ possessors of the soil in an endless series of inter- tribal wars, waged for the possession of what they had taken from the Britons. Leagues and counter-leagues rapidly succeeded one another. The old tribal lines gradually dissolved, and the elected war chief of temporary powers passed into the permanent king; the isolated tribal settlements into the seven or eight confederacies, the ^'kingdoms" of the so-called "Heptarchy." Then followed a bitter rivalry of these "Hep- tarchy" kings, a fierce strife for supremacy, which ended at last in the final triumph of the kings of the West Saxons and the establishment of the permanent hegemony of Wessex.

Of these confederacies four rise to special prominence: I, that of the West Saxon and Jutish tribes who had taken possession of the lands that lay between the upper Thames, the Great Con- Sevcm, and the sea; II, that of the Anglian tribes, who dwelt north of the Hnmber, known as North- umbrians; III, that presided over by Ethelbert, king of the Jutea of Kent, which included besides the men of Kent, the Cantwara^ the East Saxon, East Anglian, and East Mercian tribes as far as the Humber; and IV, that of the Anglian tribes who occupied the

591.«89] INB 11

country which lay between thje basin of the npper Thames, the Fen country, the Humber, an^ the Welsh border. These people were very early known as the Mercians j or the border people.

The West Saxons first come into prominence in connection with the conquest of the Severn valley by Ceawlin.- After the dis- j. The West Solution of the confederacy of Ceawlin, in 591, the fSSra^V^ West Saxon tribes do not become of importance again ^"*' until the reign of Ine, 688-726. Ine extended his

authority, not only over the regions which had formerly recog- nized the supremacy of Ceawlin, but also over the eastern king- doms of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. He further extended his frontier to the west by conquering Somerset, and built a wooden fort on the Tone, the modem Taunton. la 715, he was called upon to measure his strength with Ceolred of Mercia. The two armies met at Wanborough, and, although neither could claim a victory, the Mercians were glad to retire to the north bank of the. Thames and leave Ine to continue his work for the West Saxons.

Here he sought to lay the foundations of a real kingdom, by defining the power of his administrative officers, and giving The Lavm uniformity to the customary law by reducing it to a ^^"*' code. The shire appears as the territorial unit of

the judicial administration. The ealdorman is responsible for the arrest of the criminal in his shire ; if he allows him to escape, he forfeits his office. Military service, the fyrd, is required of all, high or low; and heavy fines, but graded to the rank of the laggard, are prescribed for failure to respond to the call to arms. After the death of Ine in 726, the kingdom once more fell under the shadow of Mercia, from which it did not again emerge until the reign of Egbert, 802-839.

When Ceawlin was closing his long career in the southwest, Ethelric, the king of the Bernicians, was extending his power over IL The the neighboring Deirans. In 593, liis son Ethelfrid hrian^^ "the Devastator," succeeded to the headship of the Confedenwy. ^^j^ed Northumbrian tribes. For twenty years this terrible king lorded it over the north, overwhelming the Britons at Dawstone and Chester, and extending his power over the tribes far to the south. In his efforts to extend his

12 THE CONFEDERACIES OF TEUTONIC BBITAIH

power here, he was defeated and slaia by Baodwald, king of the East Anglians, at Betford in 617.

The great Northumbrian confederacy, however, which had outlasted two kings, did not break up at the death of Ethelfrid, but continued, with varying fortunes until it, too, was finally merged in the group of vassal states which constituted the so-called kingdom of Egbert of Wessex.

The confederacy of Ethelbert of Kent was short-lived. Its importance rests upon the part of Ethelbert in encouraging Chris- IIL The tianity in Teutonic Britain. He married Bertha, the of^vuu^ granddaughter of Clotaire the Great, king of the of Kent, Franks. The Franks were a Christian people, and Bertha's influence at Ethelbert's court undoubtedly prepared the way for the entrance of Christian teachers. At all events when a band of missionaries which had been sent out by Pope .Gregory I., reached Kent in the spring of 597, they found Ethel- bert ready to receive them. On Whitsunday, June 2, he sub- mitted to Christian baptism. Thousands of his subjects followed his example, and within a year the mission of Gregory had become a flourishing church. The monks had made their headquarters at Canterbury, the royal residence city, and in June, 601, their leader, Augustine, was formally recognized by the pope as the first archbishop of Canterbury.

Augustine brought with him a knowledge of tne ways of the great civilized world, and ho and his monks taught their royal converts many useful lessons. It was due to his influence, probably, that about the year COO the old customary laws of the Jutes were reduced to writing, and put into code form; "the first formal record of the laws of an English people," preceding by ninety years the like record which Ine made of the laws of the "West Saxons. After the death of Ethelbert in G16, his con- federacy of Jutes, Angles, and Saxons dissolved once more into **a chaos of warring tribes."

In the later sixth century the Mercian tribes began to draw together into a confederacy similar to those about them. But it was not until the time of their great king Penda, 626-654, that this fourth league became a formidable menace to its

6a(M{54] PBKDA 13

neighbors. Penda, moreover, was not a common conqueror, like Ceawlin or Ethelfrid, fighting for dominion only. He repre- sented the protest of the adherents of the old faith Mercian against the innovations which Christian teachers were introducing. Edwin, the successor of Ethelfrid, had reyived the fallen fortunes of Northumbria after Retford and had extended the glory of Northumbrian arms beyond the utmost conquests of Ethelfrid; even distant Man and Anglesey had recognized his overlordship, while upon the north he had pushed his conquests to the Forth. Ho had married Ethelburga, a daughter of the great Ethelbert, and like Ethelbert, had renounced the faith of his fathers for the faith of his wife. York, the royal residence city, had become the headquarters of the new church, and Ethelburga's chaplain, Panlinus, had been established as the first archbishop. Vassal kings also, among them the son of Baedwald of East Anglia, had followed the example of Edwin. Penda, however, not only refused to accept Christian teachers but gathered about him all the dissatisfied elements of mid-Britain to make a last stand for the old faith. He made an alliance with Cadwallon, the Christian king of North Wales. For not only had the Welsh Christians refused all over- tures on the part of Augustine, but Cadwallon was also the bitter foe of Edwin. The allies met Edwin at Hatfield. Edwin was killed, his army routed and his supremacy passed to Penda. Archbishop Paulinus, with Ethelburga and her children, fled to Kent.

Penda's victories, however, could not save paganism. He carried on long and cruel wars against the Northumbrians, but finally was overthrown and slain on the Winwaed by adopted tty the Christian king, Oswy, in 654. With the fall of Penda the last bulwark of paganism was swept away. Even while he lived, his son Wulfhere had submitted to baptism, and the Mercians had begun to follow Christian teachers under his very eyes. When, therefore, throe years after Penda's death, Wulfhere sacceeded to the royal title in Mercia, the last of the great confederacies had accepted a Christian king.

Sixty years had now passed since the baptism of Ethelbert,

14 THB G0KFEDEBAGIE8 OF TEUTOKIO BRITAIN

and, althongh Teutonic Britain was nominally won for Ohris-

tianity, there was, as yet, no uniform rule of faith, or harmony

of practice; there was no commonly accepted authority

The Teutonic before which rival bishops might bring their quarrels

churches . ,. , . i i . i ^ i i • -i ■»

inBrUon for adjustment, or the unworthy might be tried and century. punished. Each kingdom had its bishop, but the bishop was only the royal chaplain, and had little influence and few interests outside of the boundaries which marked the limits of his master's authority. The Northumbrian church, moreover, was rent by a bitter strife. After the over- throw of Edwin, Christianity had been reintroduced by the Celtic monk, the saintly Aidan, who had come from the old Celtic mission station at lona. There was enough difference between their customs and those of the southern church to arouse the Swiodof spirit of controversy, and during the reign of Oswy, whUhy,€6*. ^ vigorous party, led by Wilfrid, the fiery young abbot of Bipon, demanded that the schismatic practices introduced by Aidan be abandoned, and that the forms received from Paulinus be restored. The storm was not laid until in 664, at the historic Synod of Whitby, King Oswy himself formally pronounced for the common practice of Christendom.

Four years after the decision at Whitby, Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk, was appointed by Pope Vitalian to the vacant see tj^^^^f^^ifyrt, ^^ Canterbury. When he reached Canterbury the ofcm^r^ following May, he found that a plague had recently bury, 668, devastated the island. The church, in particular, had suffered severely ; several bishops had fallen at their posts; and the people were awed and softened. Theodore began at once a visitation of the several kingdoms; reorganizing the churches, filling vacant sees, and introducing a stricter conformity to the Roman system. In 673, he invited the bishops to meet him at Hertford, to consider the question of reorganization. The gathering was not only the first council of the English church, but the first assembly in which representatives from all parts of the future nation mot to discuss matters of common interest. Seven years later, 680, Theodore held another synod at Hatfield, at which the bishops accepted the decrees of the General

688-688] THEODORE 15

Gonncils, and so formally decreed the orthodoxy of the new national church.

When Theodore died, in 688, there was in all the west no ecclesiastical province which was in hotter stead, or more efficiently

oriranized. The six original sees, discordant, over- T)uodore*B grown, and unwieldy, he had broken up into fifteen

and brought under the close supervision of Canter- bury. But fully as important as the work of Theodore for the church, was his influence upon the future political development of the Teutonic tribes of Britain. The shire organizations of Ine and Alfred grew up upon lines suggested by the bishoprics of Theodore. His national councils for the church were the fore- runners of the national councils of the state. Ho himself, the national primate, was the forerunner of the national king.

In other ways, also, Theodore assisted in laying deep and stable the foundations of the England to come. His penitential

system instilled into the barbaric mind a new con- uuuences ccption of vicc and crime as sin against God; thus

preparing a foundation for the work of the future Glanvilles and Bractons in the quickening moral sense of the people. His school at Canterbury, under the direction of his friend, the abbot Hadrian, gave instruction in Latin and Greek, arithmetic and astronomy, and the themes of Holy Scripture — the forerunner of the great schools of Jarrow and York. He also did much to diffuse a knowledge of the stately Gregorian music, which had been as yet hardly known outside the borders of Kent. It must not be forgotten, however, that Theodore is not the only great name which the church of this era has given to Oreatmm English history. We have already seen Wilfrid strug- qf era. gling to solve the Northumbrian church problems. His

friend, Benedict Biscop, was the first to introduce stained glass, bringing glass workers from Gaul, in order to provide his own monastery at Wearmouth. He founded the famous monastery and more famous school at Jarrow, going himself to Eome to procure books and pictures for its library.

To this era belong also the names of Cuthbert, consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne by Theodore, famous peasant preacher and

16 THE CONFEDERACIES OF TEUTONIC BRITAIN

saint, who spent the greater part of his life among the remoter mountain settlements of Northiimbria, "from whose roughness and poverty other teachers turned aside" ; Caedmon, caSnwit also, the peasant Milton, the cowherd of Whitby, and Bede. ^^^^^ untutored lips, touched by divine vision, *sang of the creation of the world,' the 'origin of man,' ... 'of the incar- nation,' 'passion and resurrection of Christ,' — "the first great jSnglish song." Bede, who revived for England the traditions of the older culture of the almost forgotten classical world, the first English historian, was born probably the very year of Theodore's historical council at Hertford.

Under the powerful Offa, who ruled Mercia from 757-796, the long struggle for supremacy seemed about to be decided in favor of the middle kingdom. Of the first years of his ^npower reign, little is known; but in 771, we find him par- celing out the lands of Sussex,- with the kings of Wessex and Kent acting as attesting parties; evidence that, even at this date, Offa had established himself south of the Thames, and that Wessex had again lost her independence. His greatest wars, however, were waged against the Welsh, whom he drove out of the valley of the Severn, advancing his own borders to the Wye. This conquest be secured by the introduction of colonists and the erection of a frontier rampart, the famous "Offa's Dyke," connecting the lower Severn and the Dee. The line of "Offa's Dyke" has remained virtually the permanent boundary between Wales and England.

Offa died in 796, and, for a few years, Mercia maintained the position to which he had elevated her. Then, one by one, the Kgheru achievements of Offa were undone. In 802, the young

802-889, Egbert, of the royal house of Wessex, returned

from the court of Charles the Great, whither he had been driven by the persecutions of Offa. Thirteen years he spent in rallying the shattered forces of his kingdom. Then he began a series of operations which culminated in 825 in the overthrow of the Mercians at Ellandun. When, in 829, he made a royal progress through Mercia, it was virtually his, as much as Wessex. The Northumbrians alone remained independent, but a century pf

THE DANE3 17

discord had so weakened their power that no one thought of resisting the conqueror of EUandun. When, therefore, Egbert summoned Eanred, the king, to meet him on the border and acknowledge his snpremacy, Eanred at once complied and North- nmbria also entered the great West Saxon confederacy.

By the end of 830, with the exception of Celtic Strathclyde, all the lands south of the line of the Forth and the Clyde had submitted to Egbert. Through all this magnificent region, the princes, whether Celt or Teuton, acknowledged the overlordship of the southern king. The vague recognition of this overlordship, however, did not constitate these vassal states into a kingdom or an empire, still less into a national state. Egbert had, after all, only brought together such another confederacy as that which once obeyed Penda or Offa; only larger in extent, and, for the moment, confronted by no possible rival north or south.

CHAPTER III

THE DAKISH WABS. ALFRED THE GREAT AND THE FOUNDING

OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOM

For two hundred years, Britain had received no fresh accessions of Teutonic life from beyond the seas; but, in the closing years of the eighth century, a new wave began to break upon the eastern shore, and, increasing in volume with the opening of the ninth century, threatened to sweep away the older Teutonic settlers, as the Angles and Saxons had once overwhelmed and swept away the remnant of the Britons. This new Germanic population came from the two great peninsulas which separate the waters of the Baltic from the waters of the North Sea. The people of Britain called them Danes; the Irish, whose eastern coasts were harried by them as severely as the coasts of Britain, knew them as Ostmen^ or Easimen; the people of the continent, as Northmen, The name which they themselves used was Vikings^ or Creekmen, They were of Teutonic stock like the Angles and Saxons, and possessed in general the same institutions.

18 THE DANISH WAB8 [

The first authenticated appearance of the Northmen in Britain was in 793, when they suddenly swooped down upon Lindisfame and plundered its famous church. The next year they anetoT returned and plundered Benedict Biscop's settlements at Wearmouth and Jarrow. In 795 they reached north- ern Ireland and began a series of depredations along the eastern coast, which continued for more than a century. Southern Britain was not disturbed by them until 833, when a fleet of thirty-five vessels ravaged the island of Sheppey. In 835 Egbert defeated a horde at Hengistdun in Cornwall with such slaughter that the Danes apparently were intimidated for the moment, and he had no more trouble during the rest of his reign.

With Ethelwulf, however, the inroads upon south Britain began again, and for thirty years the West Saxon overlord and his ExUsni of vassal kings had little respite. Kent, Surrey, and Essex depredattona. ^ere wasted again and again; London and Canterbury were twice taken and twice burned. East Anglia was crushed; her last king, Edmund, tied to a tree and shot to death with arrows; her people turned out of their homes and their lands taken by strangers. A similar fate befell eastern Mercia and Northumbria. Burgred, the last Mercian king, abandoned his post in despair and went into exile; the last kings of Northumbria fell in battle with their thanes and ealdormen. York was taken and plundered; Carlisle left in mournful ruins. Every monastery was burned from sea to sea. The "art treasures" and the "book treasures," so carefully gathered by Benedict Biscop, were either destroyed or scattered. The service of the church was supplanted by the bloody feasts of Odin and Thor, and the successors of Wilfrid and Cuthbert either slain at their altars or driven out to wander in strange lands.

In 871 Alfred assumed the task of restoring his smitten country. Of all the states that had constituted the once splendid Aifrcd'ft confederacy of Egbert, Wessex alone remained m^lanes^^ Unbroken. The other states were lost, but Wessex 671-678. might be saved. For seven years Alfred carried on the

unequal struggle. Again and again he brought his battle-weary people to face the terrible foe. Sometimes he was beaten ; some-

^8] WEDHOBE 19

168 he was victorious. But whether beaten or victorious, Qie [t season the war-beacons were kindled again, and the struggle amed. Finally, in 878, Alfred succeeded in repelling the &ck of a combined horde of East Anglian and Irish Danes at ington, in western Mercia. He then followed them to their ip at Chippenham and after a siege of fourteen days forced m to agree to a truce, which was afterward ratified at Wed- hiwn, more, — the famous "Alfred and Guthrum's Peace." By the terms of this peace the Danish king, Guthram, •mitted to Christian baptism and acknowledged Alfred as his 1. Alfred, on his part, formally ceded to the Danes the regions b of Watling Street, which they already held. Wessex and item Mercia were thus saved, and a basis established upon ch Alfred's people and the Danes might live in peace. England east of the line of Wedmore and north to the borders Bemicia, soon became known as the Danelagh; that is, the country where the law of the Danes prevailed, in dis- 1*^^ tinction from the country where English law prevailed. ^JJ*^ This region, however, was not one kingdom, but many. The Danes, like the Teutonic settlers of two centuries ier, gathered in separate communities, each under its own jarl king, but linked together in loose confederacies. South of tling Street there was now one kingdom and one king. In reorganizing the southern kingdom, Alfred committed tern Mercia to Ethelred, who ruled it as a dependent princi- pality, under the title of ealdorman. He gave his own ncf immediate attention to Wessex and the regions to the east, which had once constituted the kingdoms of jex, Surrey, and Kent. Here, by extending the shire system 3h Ine had introduced in Wessex, he sought to weld the shat- d fragments of these ancient states into a single compact jnion. Each kingdom became a shire, that is, a simple adminis- ive district of the common kingdom, under the jurisdiction of >wn shire court, and presided over by its own steward, the •gerefa^ whom we know by the modem name of sheriff. By side of the sheriff sat also the ealdorman and the bishop. It yt possible to distinguish clearly the respective duties of these

20 THE DANISH WARS [

officers in the shire, but the sheriff was "the constituting oflScer** of the court. It is not likely that ealdorman and bishop were always present, but the sheriff, as the representative of the king, must be; without him, there could be no shire court. It was his duty, also, to look after the interests of his master in the care of the crown lands within his shire, and the collection of fines and dues. It was the ealdorman's duty to command the military levies of the shire, — the fyrd. He was responsible for their condition; for the promptness with which they took the field. It was his, also, to lead them in battle, to encourage them by his example, to hearten and cheer them by his fortitude under trial, by his courage in the face of peril. The sheriff was appointed by the king, but the ealdorman was elected by the witan, of which august body he was also a member, and to whose councils he con- tributed his wisdom. The bishop also had his interests in the shire; his people were amenable to its court; the innocent, the poor, and the friendless must be protected against injustice in the name of law; the various religious forms connected with the crude methods of trial must be superintended in the name of the church. The association of neighboring villages into minor judicial districts, known later in England as hundreds, was, as we have

seen, like the shires, not a new thing. These also uiesvHtemof Alfred reorganized and harmonized, and greatly

strengthened and extended as the foundation of the shire system. To give weight and dignity to the decisions of the hundred court, the great landowners of the district who possessed five hides of land or more, the thanes^ were required to be present and to assist the court in rendering just decisions. They them- selves, however, were exempt from the jurisdiction of the local court and held in their own halls a coordinate court for their people. In all cases, :he king held the presiding judges respon- sible for the decisions of their respective courts, nor did he hesi- tate to interfere or punish the judge who was neglectful of his duty or gave other evidence of his unfitness. Even the ealdorman was not above the king's displeasure, and might bo removed for connivance at crime or injustice. The poor, the remnant of the old free ceorls, the friendless peasantry upon whom the heavy

ALFRED AND THE LAWS 21

hand of the great magnates was apt to rest with unsparing severity, were the special objects of the king's solicitude; ''for the poor had no friend save the king."

Side by side with a better civil organization, Alfred established also a better military organization. By old Teutonic law, the

great body of freemen were held to military duty, and the maitary might be Called into the field in the presence of

common danger. But the long campaigning of the earlier years of Alfred's reign, and the need of keeping the nation constantly under arms, had been a severe strain upon the older system, and it had more than once failed in an hour of greatest peril, as in the winter of 877. Alfred sought to remedy this weakness of the fyrd, by introducing a system of reliefs. Only a third of the people were to be called into active service in the field at any one time; another third were to do garrison duty; while the remaining third tilled the fields and cared for the families of those who were facing the enemy. The period of service, moreover, was definitely fixed, and the men of each divi- sion knew just when they were to be relieved.

With the same wise policy of adapting old institutions to the new needs of the nation, Alfred addressed himself to a reform of

eristing laws. From the codes of Ethelbert, Ine, and oSum!^ Oflfa, supplemented by provisions taken from the

ancient Levitical Law, he compiled a new code for the common kingdom. The only originality which he claimed for himself was that of selection: ''I gathered these laws together and commanded many of those to be written which our forefathers held, those which to me seemed good; and many of those which to me seemed not good, I rejected."

No statesman ever appreciated more than Alfred the value of education in elevating a people, or in creating a true national

spirit. Bis own education had been neglected in his Alfred and early years; for what reason is not known. He had

edueaticn,

been left to gather what he could in a desultory way; at twelve he had not yet learned his letters; nor in his later years was he ever able to atone for the lack of early training, always to him a source of deep regret. Yet possibly this early neglect was

22 THE DAKISH WABS [

not without its compensations. For daring these years when Latin, the literary language of the ninth century, was to him a sealed tongue, his fresh young mind must have drunk deep and long from the homely fountains of his own English, the language which was yet virtually without a literature, and learned to value the priceless traditions of a past which was rapidly fading. It is not likely that he knew much of Bede in those days, for Bede had written in Latin; but he must have heard the gleemen sing their half -pagan songs in his father's hall; he must have listened to tales of brave deeds of old, of **sword play," and "shield wall," and "arrow flight," until the generous heart of the lad had thrilled with patriotic emotion. Nor, in after years, when his turn came to take up the burdens of a king, could he forget these lessons, or fail to appreciate the value of such traditions in inspir- ing the English with pride in their past, or confidence in their future. Thus first among English kings, Alfred grasped the importance of national history as an instrument of education, and sought to leave to the people, in a language which the simplest of them could understand, a record of their kings and of their own achievements. This record, compiled under Alfred's direction, partly from current traditions and partly from the Ecclesiastical

History of Bede, was the beginning of the famous Saxon Chronicle, which was destined to be continued for three

hundred years, forming a sort of semi-official national diary of the greatest value in recovering the later history of Old English kings. For the benefit of his unlearned countrymen also Alfred caused to be put in an English dress such works, standard in his day, as Bede's history and the general history of the world of Orosius. The king's interest in literature, however, was by no means confined to history, lie caused translations to be made of standard philosophical and theological works as well, of which the most important were the Coiisolations of Philosophy of the unfor- tunate Boethius, and the Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory I. He

also made a collection of the ancient epic songs of the

English. But of these, with the exception of the epic of Beoivulfy only a few fragments have survived. In Beowulf, how- ever, we have a prioeless treasure. It is not only the earliest of

THE NINTH OENTUBY BEKAIS8AN0B 23

English poems, antedating the era of migration; it is also a striking picture of life and manners, far more than the dry annals of the Chronicle^ revealing the temper of the ancient English folk.

The compilation of the Chronicle^ the translation of standard works, and the collection of English war songs, formed only a part of Alfred's plans for furthering the education of ceiuwrv his people. Like Charles the Great, he ransacked his dominions for men who were apt to teach. From Mercia, he drew out Plegmund, who in 890 became archbishop of Canterbury. From Wales, he brought the man who was after- ward to become his biographer, the learned Asser. Even foreign countries also were invited to contribute of their wealth to enrich his schools. Saxony gave him "John the Old Saxon" and St. Bertin gave him Grimbald. Under the inspiration of such men, there began a genuine renaissance. The long struggle with the Danes had dealt severely with the English kingdoms; the old schools had been destroyed, their teachers and pupils scattered, and the people had lapsed into barbaric ignorance. When Alfred began his reign it was said that there was not a man in Wessex who could read understandingly. When Alfred closed his reign, English prose had been bom, and the English mind had received an inspiration which it was not to lose, until it emerged into the full day of the modem era.

The same order which Alfred introduced into the administra- tion of his kingdom, he introduced also into his own private life. He had no clock to warn him of the flight of the S^^redS***^ hours; but, by burning a series of tapers, he contrived ^n^^l*odicai trO divide his day with some accuracy. When he noticed that the draughts caused his candles to bum unevenly at times, he protected them with a lantern made with sides of horn. The well-ordered household, the value put upon education, the sobriety and patient industry of the king, and the quiet seriousness with which he took the duties of his high office, created an influence which affected all who came in contact with him, and from the court extended outward and downward to the people.

24 THE DANISH WABS [

While Alfred was thus laying broad foundations for the future greatness of his people, the Danes of Britain were quietly settling

down to a peaceful life, learning much from the duirtS*"** English who dwelt among them, and forgetting much ^S"*reton. ^^ ^^^®*^ ^^^ hostility. The regions in particular about

Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln, the famous "Five Boroughs," soon became vigorous centers of Danish life. It is not likely that the tillers of the soil, who were now virtually serfs over all Anglo-Saxon Britain, were disturbed, but rather that the Danes simply ejected the landowners and lived upon the labor of the tenants.

Occasionally a new band from the continent harried Alfred's coasts. But Alfred, in reorganizing the land fyrd, had not for- gotten the ship fyrd. In the year 882 his seamen sank thirteen Danish ships at the mouth of the Stour, one of the earliest recorded achievements of the English navy. Beginning with 891,

however, the Danes began to come in greater numbers, Danuh and for four years Alfred's hands were full. Severe

battles were fought on the Thames and around London. In 894: a horde under Hasting broke into Mercia from the east and having ravaged the whole upper Thames country were finally halted by Ethelred at Buttington. The next year a second horde managed to repeat the experiment of Hasting, and having wintered near Bridgcnorth retired into Northumbria in the spring.

In the summer of 800 there were * 'desultory landings" on the southern coast, but the danger was passed. The losses of the four

years had been very severe. A great number of *AUrcdL^^^ Alfred's people had fallen; among them two bishops,

three ealdormen, and many of the minor thanes. Vast areas of country, also, had been laid waste. But Alfred's system had successfully stood the strain, and Englishmen had learned the value of an efficient government, loyally sustained.

Five years later, Alfred, the greatest of early English kings, laid down the burdens which he had carried so well. He had reigned twenty-nine years and six months. He was preemi- nently the right man in the right place. Ho imparted his own energy and courage to the English people in the most critical

dOlfttO] SDWABD THE ELDEB 25

period of ihe national history. But he did more than this. He founded the England which we know. Deeply religious, frail in HMfhrnuf ^^^> *^^ seldom free from pain, he was no ascetic, character <if but a thoroughgoing man of affairs, laborious, method- ical, and careful of details. He was a leader whom men trusted with implicit confidence, because they felt that he was directed and controlled by sterling good sense, and was able to ''bring things to pass"; he is ''one of the most pleasing, and perhaps the most perfect character in history"; the king who, "as no other man on record, has so thoroughly united all the yirtues, both of the ruler and of the private man."

CHAPTER IV

THE BXPAN8I0N OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOM UNDEB THE GREAT

KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ALFRED

Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward, distinguished by later historians as "the Elder." Ethelred continued to admin- ister the affairs of Mercia. Ho had married Alfred's (i^Edward daughter, Ethelfleda, and after his death, in 912, Ethelfleda succeeded to his authority in upper Mercia^ She possessed all the genius of her house for war and administra- tion, and Mercia suffered nothing at her hands. When she died, in 920, Edward assumed the administration of Mercian affairs himself, and the separate government of Mercia came to an end. The events of the later years of Alfred's reign had taught Edward the. insecurity of peace as long as the Danes of the Danelagh retained their independence. He had been f^HrSSn*^ trained in too good a school, however, to rush blindly into a struggle for which he had not first prepared himself and his people. To this end, therefore, in the year 907, by the restoration of Chester, which had remained in ruins since the time of Ethelfrid the Devastator, he began a series of fortifi- cations which extended along his whole border and took ten years

Sfl

THE EXPANSION OF THE SINQDOU [ebwa

to complete. For the most part these fortiBcations consisted of a combination of the earthen rampart and monnd of the Danes and the old English burg or surrounding fence of palisades, faced by the inevitable ditch. Sometimes, however, an ancient Roman camp was restored. If stone walls were nsed in fortifying cities,

it was only in rare cases, for the era of stone f or- tressee had not yet come. The Danes had taught the English the value of snch works ; for i t was neither anpe- rior general- ship nor supe- rior courage which had made the Danes former- ly so difficult to dislodge when once they had es- t ablished themselves, hot their fortified camps. On the other hand, the English here- tofore had had no fortified towns, nor known aught of the science of fortification. When once beaten in the field, the whole country lay at the mercy of the enemy.

The Danes were not unmindful of the intent of Edward's fort- building, and from the restoration of Chester, each new essay on the part of the English was followed by a raid of Danes into

	--^ f"?^	ENG Later Efpan	LAND ^^ Ion of Wessex
^^ 0	\rf/f-
\ c>	■Si	/jJ^^^La	^-
V
\ ^	y>^h
J-	y^\V\		^^£iy
^	vv/'''-		^
y/Vi	iip-^fS'^^ — l|
^^Jl	-vT T ]
	y~
.-> . ,. .■._^ II

914-925] Ur^ASION OP THE DAKELAOH 27

English territory. Edward, however, steadily pushed forward the fortification of the border, and in 914 the work was far enough along for him to undertake the formal invasion of o/ ths Dane- Essex. The method of advance which Edward adopted . at this time was generally followed in the subse- quent wars, and goes far to explain the unvarying success of his operations. He first led a large force into the enemy's country and established a powerful camp ; then under cover of the camp he built a permanent fortress and garrisoned it with his own people. Thus while he lay encamped at Maldon in 914, he erected a fort at Witham, which made him master of all southern Essex and thrust the Danes back upon the Golne.

The submission of the Five Boroughs and the Fen country, in

918, was followed by the submission of East Anglia. The year ^^ after Ethelfleda's death the English outposts were

ofEdward'B pushed across the Mersey and established at Manches- ter, and the year following, 921, Edward fortified Bake- well in the Peakland. The whole south Humber country was now in his hands, and English colonists were beginning to pour into the conquered territories. Then followed a noteworthy event, which shows how the fame of Edward had gone before him and overawed the whole north; for here at Bakewell came Welsh and Scots, Danes and English, to accept Edward's authority and take him to " father and lord." Thus ended the work of conquest for that generation. The northern states, crippled by dissension and awed by the irresistible advance of the English lines, had no desire to press the question of supremacy further. Edward had secured the Humber as the northern border of his actual kingdom ; he had also secured the recognition of his overlordship in the regions north of the Humber. He rested content; his work was done.

Edward survived his triumph at Bakewell barely four years. His reign is marked by the solidity of its successes, due as much to the sterling worth of the man as to his farsighted fdS^^fiss. wisdom. In some respects possibly, Edward even sur- passed Alfred. He is undoubtedly the greatest military leader of th^ old English period; his unvarying success is as remarkable as the substantial nature of his conquests. He eom-

28 THB EXPANSION OF THE KIKODOM [Anonr^

prehended fully the spirit of his father's great work of reorgan- ization, and made his conquests the means of strengthening and extending it, forming of the England which he had won a compact national state.

Edward had all his father's love of justice, and realized fully the importance of "just dooms" to a contented and happy people.

He constrained his witan to support him in the main- mSuL tenance of peace, and made them responsihle for the

denial or delay of justice. Each gerefa was required to hold his court ** always once in four weeks," plainly the hundred court, and *'every suit was to have an end, and a term in which it must be brought forward." The relations of English and Danes were carefully regulated by a graded wergeld. A system was also established by which legal bargains could be made only within a walled town and in the presence of the reeve. The law was softened somewhat by Edward's successor, but the prin- ciple which required public recognition of commercial transactions must have been very useful among a semi-barbarous people, and often saved them from the occasion of litigation. In Edward's laws, also, we have the first notice of the ordeal, not a new method of trial by any means, but from this time conspicuous among the strange old laws of the Anglo-Saxons, a curious mingling of Christ- ianity and barbarism. All in all, English society had not advanced far, when peace breaking and perjury, robbery and murder, were still incidents of daily life against which king and witan waged a long and weary, but not hopeless, warfare.

When Edward died, his eldest son, Athelstan, was about thirty years of age. The northern lords met him at Dacre and formally

acknowledged his lordship. That Athelstan took the AO^tan, homage seriously, as a recognition of his supremacy

over the north, is shown by the style which he now assumes. He is no longer like Alfred, ''King of the West Saxons," or like his father, "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; he is "Monarch of all Britain."

The homage of Dacre, however, does not seem to have proved a very secure basis for a lasting peace. In 937 Athelstan had to call out his fyrd to meet an invasion supported by a widely

937-956] BRUNANDUBH 29

extended leagne of Scots, Picts, Welsh, and Danes under Con- stantino, king of Scots. The battle was fought at Brunanburh, _ probably somewhere in Lincolnshire. The northern

The hattU f,Vi i r^ . .» .11 ^.

of lirunav^ hordo was beaten, and Constantme with the wreck of

his army was glad to retire to his ships, leaving behind him upon the earthworks of Brunanburh five "young kings,'* among them his own son. Athelstan returned home to rule in peace, the sole king of the Anglo-Saxons from the Channel to the Tyne, and the undisputed overlord of Britain.

Upon the death of Athelstan, his brother Edmund passed at once to the throne. The new reign was brief but vigorous. The

northern earls thought to take advantage of the acces- wo^?^* sion of a lad of eighteen to undo the work of

Brunanburh. Edmund, however, was fully equal to the emergency, and by 945 had once more recovered the northern earldoms. The next year the young king, whose reign had opened so auspiciously, was slain by an outlaw, while keeping the Feast of St. Augustine at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire.

Edmund's eldest son, Edwy, was still a child; and the witan turned to his brother Edred, the youngest son of Edward. Since childhood, Edred had been a confirmed invalid. lie was

surrounded, however, by the veteran counselors of his Mff-5^ brothers and his father, and during his reign of nine

years the administration revealed no falling off in energy or efficiency. There was the usual hesitation of the northern people in accepting the new king, but the prompt action of the Welsh and the English, and the ready energy of the king's minis- ters, forestalled the growth of any widely-extended revolt. The Northumbrians were weary of Danish rule, and apparently con- spired with the English to expel the last representatives of the old Danish kings. Edred, however, did not organize the newly acquired territory as a part of the English kingdom of the south, but united Deira and Bemicia into one vast ealdormanry, or earldom, which he bestowed upon Osulf, the **ITigh Reeve of Bamborough," who had recently been of great service in expelling the Danes.

The recovery of the Danelagh was now complete. The question

30 THE EXPANSION OP THE KINGDOM [bdb»

of supremacy was permanently settled, not only between Danes and English, but also between North Britain and South Britain.

Henceforth, southern Britain was to direct the "des- BrUain^ tinies of the island," give it its royal family, and Enaiand ^^^® ^^ from its southcm capital. But more important

still, Teutonic Britain had become England; in the furnace fire of foreign war, local differences and tribal antagonisms had disappeared, and the once rival tribes had been fused into one people. The tribal king of the West Saxons had become the national king of the English.

In the presence of such changes it was not possible for the old, simple, political and social constitution to remain as it had been in

the past. The erasure of ancient tribal lines and the uxErSoHsh Concentration of all royal authority in the family of joctn^aaTi- 'W'essex, vastly increasing the personal authority and

prestige of the king, were suflBcient to change the pro- portions of the old constitution. But other changes fully as important, and even more radical, had extended through the entire social structure. The old free ceorls had sunk into a con- dition of semi-servitude. The laws of the time, designed no doubt to protect society against the vagrant, compelled every man to put himself under the protection of some lord, who thus became a sort of perpetual bail, responsible for the conduct of his man, and in case of crime bound to produce him in court or make good the loss which his ill-doing had caused the community. A man of good character would find little difficulty in securing a lord, but the man who had once lost his reputation was in a sad plight, for the lordless man had no standing before the law. The principle was feudal, and indicates, all too plainly, that English society was changing rapidly from a community of independent freemen to an oligarchy of rich landowners, where wealth was the only badge of independence. It indicates, moreover, that the poor freeman could no longer be trusted; the loss of personal independence, as always, had been attended by a corresponding loss of self-respect and sense of responsibility. Freemen had become servile in nature and therefore, servile in condition.

With the decline of the free poor, there is also a marked

POLICE BEGULATIOKS 31

advance in the seyerity of the laws in dealing with petty offenders

who naturally came from this class, or the scarcely lower class

who represented the old villainage. No thief of

reaiSaiionti ^wclve years of age or over who stole to the amount of

twelve pence was to be spared. He was to be slain, if

found guilty, and all that he had was to be taken. The manifest

thief was to be pursued by hue and cry, and the first man who

felled him to the earth was to receive a fee of twelve pence. The

population, also, were invited to enroll themselves into

gilds, each under its own head or ealdor. Ten gilds,

again, were to be associated together into a larger association

known as the hundred. The gild was to serve as a sort of home

protection association, designed to insure its members against loss

by theft. Their duty was to lead the hue and cry against the

thief, and see that the stolen property or its value was restored to

the owner. The sheriff was to be called upon only when the

offender was too strong for the gilds to deal with, or when he

soaght refuge in another shire.

In the laws of Athelstan, the shire court and the whole system of procedure emerge with more and more distinctness from the obscurity of the earlier period. General attendance upon the ^^^^^ shire court was enforced by fines. The sheriff was trial The also more definitely recognized as the king^s representa- tive officer. An accused man, if not taken in the act, was allowed to clear himself by the oath of- his lord or his friends. Failing of this, he was put to the ordeal, which was simply an appeal to God to work a miracle in his behalf and save him from punishment, if he were innocent; another instance which shows how overwhelmingly the laws favored the property holder.

With the change in the standing of freemen, the government correspondingly lost its old popular character. In the consoli- Ltmnfpopu- dated kingdom the witenagemot exercised all the flj^aorern!^**^ functions of the ancient popular assembly. By its "•"^ counsel and consent charters were granted, laws were

formulated, kings, ealdormen, and bishops were chosen; by it high offenders were tried. It represented not the people, but the great landholding aristocracy, centered in the king and the royal family.

82 THE EXPANSION OF THE KINGDOM [xdwt

To this fact was undoubtedly due the growing severity of the laws which fell most heavily upon the lower classes. At times the landholders appear calling for laws so severe that the king refuses to grant them ; as when the witan proposed to Athelstan that a free woman who turned thief be drowned, or that a male slave be stoned to death and a female slave be burnt alive.

Another change which belongs to this era is significant of the drift of the national institutions. We have seen the ofthc great old oaldormon acting as the simple chiefs of the fyrd in the shire; but by the time of Edmund and Edred the ealdormen begin to appear as provincial governors, almost as sub-kings, each in his own group of shires. Under Edred there are seven such provincial governors, or viceroys, south of the Humber, to whom the reorganization of Northumbria added still an eighth. This important office, to which the Danish term earl was soon to be commonly applied, was not yet hereditary, but its semi-regal nature was recognized in that it was generally reserved for members of the royal family, the ethelings^ and could be con- ferred only by the consent of the witan.

Upon the death of Edred, the witan turned to Edwy, the eldest son of Edmund, then possibly in his sixteenth year. The choice was not happy. Edwy was under the influence of monastic Ethelgiva, a woman of evil reputation, who was solely bent upon marrying the young king to her daughter Elgiva. During the reigns of Edmund and Edred the influence of Edward's widow Edgiva had been all powerful, nor was she inclined now to yield her supremacy to the intriguing Ethelgiva. She was supported, moreover, in her opposition to the marriage by a powerful church party, headed by Dunstan, the abbot of Glaston- bury, and Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury; for Edwy and Elgiva were related within the degree of consanguinity to which marriage was forbidden by the church. The quarrel came to an open rupture at the coronation feast at Kingston. Edgiva was driven from the court; Dunstan fled to the continent and for the moment Ethelgiva was the virtual ruler of England.

Her influence, however, was founded upon the open violation of what men regarded as the sacred law of Christendom. The

057-978] EDGAB TH£ PEAOEFUL 33

conscienoe of Europe was everywhere turning from the license tolerated by a more barbarous age to a stricter life, and princes and nobles were forbidden unions which their fathers had regarded without disfavor. The church party, therefore, carried on a relentless war against Ethelgiva. In 957 the great lords of Mercia and Northumbria broke into open revolt and set up Edgar, the younger brother of Edwy, as their king. In 958 Odo suc- ceeded in divorcing King Edwy and in banishing the hated mother-in-law. The next year, the poor young Edwy died, and Wessex passed quietly to Edgar.

One of the first acts of Edgar was to advance Dunstan to the see of Canterbury, recently made vacant by the death of Odo. In Bdgarthe ^his position, Danstan stood next to the king in honor P^2^^ and influence, and the long era of peace and prosperity t^r^orm. ^hjch attended the sixteen years of Edgar's reign was due in no small degree to the primate's sage counsel, and to the consistent and statesmanlike policy to which he committed the king. During the early years of the reign, the monastic drift of popular thought was greatly strengthened by the appearance of a pestilence, the *'sudden death," which, starting from the centers of population, swept the kingdom far and wide. In 962 London, also, was ravaged by a serious conflagration. The people saw in these afiSictions a punishment for their disobedience in not con- forming to the laws of the church. The king, who from his youth had been under the influence of Dunstan, was also thoroughly possessed with this idea and gave energetic support to the plans of the primate in reforming the ecclesiastical and monastic life of the era. Many famous old English monasteries date from this period, such as Ramsay, Ely, and Medehamstede, the later Peter- borough.

Edgar and Dunstan, however, had other work to do besides that of reforming monks and building monasteries. The Danish inroads had ceased, but the unruly lords of the isles ^aSSpawer. had to be kept in subjection. According to a respect- able but hardly credible tradition, Edgar maintained a fleet of 3,600 sail, with which he patroled his coasts each year. It b probable that the famous review at Chester of 973, in which^ it

34 THE EXPANSION OF THE KINGDOM [iikmb

is said, Edgar was borne along in a barge rowed by six vassal kings, was a part of one of these annual manoBuvers.

As with his predecessors, it is difficult to distinguish particular institutions which date from Edgar's reign, and yet the era was one in which the growth of English institutions was i^rfJ^ markedly deepened and strengthened. The West Saxon ri^n!^'^ shire system was unquestionably extended to the Hum- ber. The territorial hundred or, as it was called north of Watling Street, the wapentake^ appears in the laws for the first time by name, and its functions, the times of holding the court, and the duties of its officers are fixed by ordinance. The system which Athelstan had enjoined, of organizing each community into gilds for better protection against thieving, now appears merged in the territorial hundred; the subdivision, or primary group of ten, being represented in the tithing. The times of meeting of the higher courts were fixed. The **Ordinance of the Hundred'* pre- scribed that the hundred court should meet "always in four weeks," but the burhgeynot should be held "thrice in the year," and the shire-gemot twice.

The king also turned his attention to commerce and trade. He sought to give confidence and security to all honest transac- tions by establishing in each borough or hundred a Vireguiau body of notaries, or qualified witnesses, to attest all bargains, and so protect the holder of goods from the charge of fraud or thieving. This regulation was evidently only the extension and more practical application of the principle which Athelstan had sought to embody in his laws, by which all transactions must be held within a city. Another law prescribed the use of only one kind of money in the kingdom, and one standard of weights and measures, that of London and Winches- ter. These laws were undoubtedly salutary, and reveal the rapid development of true ideas of the function of government as repre- sented in the kingship of the tenth century. Some of the laws, however, were not so wise; as when the king by enactment attempted to keep up the price of wool, a law like many of the laws of the era framed not in the interest of the people, but in the interest of the great landowners. The law is further note-

975j OHABAGTEB OF EDOAB'S BEIGK 35

worthy, since it shows that even at this period, wool-growing had become an important English industry.

Edgar died on the 8th of July, 975. Although he had but just passed his thirty-second birthday, he had been a king for

eighteen years, sixteen of which he had ruled as sole £d3ar!p75. king over the English. His policy was one of peace.

He left to his earls the administration, each of his own earldom, while he contented himself with securing the peace and quiet of the realm. He maintained terms of friendly intercourse

with the Celtic kings of the north ; he went so far in ^^^SSnT his eflforts to conciliate the Danes, that his own people

found fault with his favoritism for ^'outlandish men." Dunstan's hand, perhaps, may be seen in this, as well as in the dramatic f^tes and pageants by which he sought to secure for his king that outward grandeur which belonged to him as a king over kings. The glories of the great coronation f 6te at Bath and the famous boat procession at Chester, long lingered in the traditions of the age. But the shadow was already mounting on the dial. Edgar *'the Peaceful" is the last of the great kings of the House of Alfred. The old West Saxon kingship was not equal to the task to which it had been summoned. The extension of the shire system of Wessex was a step in the right direction ; but the inspira- tion by which this vast body of shires, with their hundred courts and borough courts, should be kept to their duties, must come from the king. The king, however, could not be everywhere. The machinery needed constant supervision and watchfulness that jus- tice might be done, or the power of ofl5cials not be used to oppress the people. This could be accomplished only by extending the sys- tem of great earldoms which we have already seen in operation under Edred. Under Edgar and his great minister this scheme no doubt worked well. * * Twice every year the king rode through every shire, inquiring into the law-dooms of the men in authority, and showing himself a powerful avenger in the name of justice." But under weaker men the results were very different. The earls became too powerful for subjects, too independent for ministers, and in the face of a victorious foe, were only too ready to betray their Bovereign in order to make advantageous terms for themselves.

36 THE DECLINE OF THE SINQDOK [idwabd lu

CHAPTER V

THE DECLINE OF THE EARLY ENGLISH EINODOM; THE ERA

OF DANISH KINGS

After the death of Edgar, England was compelled once more to endure the reign of a minor. Edgar had left two sons, — Edward and Ethelred. Dunstan and the other ministers of the late king favored the succession of Edward; but Elfrida, the second wife of Edgar and mother of Ethelred, an ambitious and unscrupulous woman, was not willing to see her son and herself also, the partner of Edgar's greatness, set down to a second place. The influence of Dunstan with the witan, however, prevailed and Edward was duly crowned. But his reign was a short one. The breach had apparently been healed, but Elfrida only bided her time. On the 18th of March, 978, the young king, who had been hunting, stopped at his stepmother's castle for refreshment. As he was about to ride away, the parting cup which the laws of hospitality of the age prescribed was presented to him, but, as he took it, he was stabbed in the back by one of Elfrida's servants. Edward's youth and the circumstances of his death appealed powerfully to the people, and they saw in him a martyr sacrificed to the deep animosity of the old anti-monastic party.

With the accession of Ethelred, Dunstan disappears from polit- ical life. In 986 he comes forth from his seclusion to save Elfstan, the bishop of Rochester, with whom the king Dututtan, had quarreled and who was besieged in his episcopal city. A few weeks later the great primate passed away, dying as he had lived with the harness on. He is the first of that long list of churchly statesmen, of whom are Lanfranc, Anselm, Becket, Langton, and Wolsey, who have directed English history, and at times exerted a greater influence upon the life of the nation than its kings. A grateful people long remembered him, "his delight to make peace between man and man," his moderation, his genial hospitality, his strict justice, his integrity, his sage wisdom. He "was canonized in popular regard almost from the

960-1002] THE DANEOBLD 37

day he died,'' and soon became the favorite saint of the old Engh'sh church ; he held his place until his fame was eclipsed by the later St. Thomas of Canterbury.

In the meantime England was sinking rapidly under the mis- fortunes which from the first attended the unlucky reign of Ethelred. As if it were not enousch that the kins^dom Dani8h be rivon by the strife of the clergy, or that men like

inroads 960*

Elfric, the son of Elfher of Mercia, whom the people regarded as responsible for the murder of Edward, appear among the earls, the Danish inroads which had practically ceased since the reign of Edward the Elder, must also begin afresh.

The first inroads, however, were merely petty, desultory raids quite like those, of the early ninth century. But in the year 991, 27,^ Ethelred established the fatal precedent of bribing the

Danegtid. marauders to leave him in peace. The eflfect of this encouragement to the freebooting trade was apparent at once. Within three years the king was compelled to pay *'Danegeld" three different times, the sums varying from £10,000 to £22,000. In the eight years which followed 994, the inroads were not as frequent nor as formidable. But were the enemy many or few, the incompetency of the government remained the same. *' Often was the fyrd gathered against the foe; but, so soon as they should have met them, through some cause, was flight ever resolved upon, and so the enemy ever had the victory."

At last the fatal year 1002 drew on. It opened with another disgraceful truce and the payment of a Danegeld of £24,000. In the preceding year an ill-advised expedition had been wa/wM. ^^^^ ^ Normandy to punish Duke Richard because he H«^^wKm iiad allowed the harbors of the Seine to shelter the Danish pirates; but, instead of bringing back the Norman duke in chains as Ethelred had instructed his lieutenants, they brought back the Lady Emma, the duke's sister, to be the bride of Ethelred. She came in the early spring and brought with her a horde of Norman flunkies and hangers-on, — the first Norman invasion of England, — whose insolent ways and out- landish manners boded no good for a court already divided and torn by the bitter rivalries of jealous factions. Emma, moreover,

88 DECLINE OF EARLY ENGLISH KINODOM [

was a woman of spirit, beautiful and cold-hearted as she was selfish. Ethelred already had a grown-up family abont him, headed by the noble etheling, Edmund Ironside. Here then was opportunity enough for clashing of interests, intrigue, open schism, and final treason ; in the end, outweighing any temporary advantage which Ethelred might secure by an fdliance with his powerful Norman neighbor.

The Norman marriage was not the only nor the most serious blunder which Ethelred made in this fatal year. It seems that as

a result of so many truces, as well as of a recent policy Day, Novem- adopted by Ethelred of enlisting Danes in the English

service, there had been introduced into Mercia and Wessex a considerable Danish population. These new Danes had not yet had time to assimilate to the English stock, as the old Danes of the Danelagh, but remained still a separate population, the detestation of the English, who feared them, but durst not attack them, and of importance enough to excite the suspicion of the government. Soon after his marriage intelligence was brought to the king, that this floating Danish population had formed a plot to destroy him and the witan, and seize the government. Ethelred, whose craven spirit made him an easy prey to all rumors of this kind, was thrown into a paroxysm of terror. He determined to strike first, and made his plans for the extermina- tion of the unsuspecting Danes on the approaching St. Brice's Day. For once the plana of Ethelred were carried out, and with fatal completeness; neither degree, nor age, nor sex was spared. The entire Danish population of Mercia and Wessex was swept away. The Danes were not only protected by recent truces, but many of them also were hostages. Ethelred, therefore, had violated

laws which even pagan barbarians held sacred. More- ^sweyn^ ovcr, among the victims were Gunhild, the sister of

Sweyn, king of Denmark, her husbjind Earl Pallig, and their infant son. When tlie news reached Sweyn he swore to be avenged on the assassin ; he would go to England, destroy Ethel- red, and add England to his Danish kingdom.

The danger which now confronted Ethelred was even more serious than any which had confronted his predecessors. Since

i008-1009] SWETN'S war of REYEyGE 39

the dajrs of Alfred, Denmark and Norway had been passing through a series of transformations quite as significant as those

which had attended the recent development of Eng- ac(erof land. The era of "creek men" and *'sea kings" was

receding; the petty tribal states had been destroyed, and the era of the national kingdom had begun. Ethelred, there* fore, was now compelled to resist not merely freebooting hordes, but a powerful national king, leading disciplined and regularly organized armies, who came with the definite purpose of conquest and annexation.

Sweyn was as good as his word, and in the spring of 1003 began the series of operations which ended ten years later in the estab- lishment of a Danish king in England. In 1005 for 2S?S/^* reasons unknown, Sweyn did not return. The English,

however, had little respite; for now a "hunger-need" fell upon the doomed land, "grimmer than any man had mind of," — the result of so much burning of fields and slaughter of cattle and "fyrding of men." In 1006 soon after mid-summer the Danes returned, and ravaged the coasts of Kent and Sussex until

the November gales drove them into the Isle of Wight 'oM^me '^^ shelter. Ethelred as usual did nothing, and with the

return home of the fyrd after harvest time, even the pretense of keeping the field was abandoned ; and when in January the Danes, crossing from the Isle of Wight, started upon a raid up through Hampshire and Berkshire, "kindling their war beacons as they went," Ethelred fell back upon his old witless policy and secured a truce by a bribe of £36,000.

Sweyn was not with the host, and there is no reason to think that he was a party to the truce. He was waging war, not for

booty, but for conquest. The witan felt their inse- furdof%09 curity, and determined to call upon the nation for a

ship fyrd which would enable them to overthrow Sweyn upon his own element, and thus for all time deliver England from its foes. It was determined to call upon every three hundred and ten hides throughout England to furnish a ship of war, built and equipped, and upon every eight hides for a helmet and coat of mail. But when the great fleet was brought together, such a fleet

40 THE DECLINE OF THE KINGDOM [;

as neither Athelstan nor Edgar had poasessed, Ethebed's ill luck did not forsake him. His leaders plotted against each other; one division of the fleet turned upon the king's people; another division was broken up by a storm and wrecked upon the coast of Sussex. Then the king brought the remnant of his ships around to London, and there laid them up to rot in the Thames. Thus the splendid fleet, which represented so much self-denial, such heroic sacrifice on the part of the people, and from which so much had been expected, had turned out to be only one more signal illustration of the incompetency of Ethelred.

General despondency, the result of the growing conviction of utter helplessness, followed the collapse of the ship fyrd, and

when in the following August a new fleet of the enemy Thurkiu, under Thurkill, more powerful than any which Sweyn

had yet sent out, appeared off Sandwich, men felt that the end could not long delay. For two seasons southern England lay at ThurkilPs mercy. The fyrd took the field, but the people hfwi lost heart. The king dragged them up and down in the wake of the Danes, but seemed *' never able to bring them to the right place in the right time." The king summoned his witan, but the spirit of the nation was broken; sixteen counties had been laid waste; **no man would lead, no man would follow, no shire would help other." The disintegration was beyond recov- ery ; there was no hope save in a new levy of Danegeld. The Danes demanded £48,000, an enormous sum even for more pros- perous times, but in its despair, the government had no other choice. The enormous ransom, however, could not be paid at once, and the plundering went on.

As Easter drew on, the witan returned to the king, ealdormen and bishops, bringing each his share of the tax and each feeling

that it must be the last. Then the bribe was naid:

Last period jiv-rw'T.!. -ii ^ ^^

of irar. and the Danish host broke up. Sweyn, however, was

crnnes kino, not Satisfied. The strength of Wessex and East Anglia had been shattered; Mercia and Northumbria were drained of their resources. All England was broken in spirit and disheartened; her earls had proved false, and her king worthless. It was the time, therefore, not for Sweyn to stay his hand, but to

1018-1016] LAST STAGES OP THE WAB 41

complete the conquest which he had sworn to accomplish ten years before. Accordingly, only a few months after the breaking np of Thurkill's horde, Sweyn appeared off Sandwich, and passing on up the eastern coast entered the Hnmber and pushed his way by the Trent into old Danish Mercia as far as Gainsborough. Tne people north of Watling Street had no thought now of else than saving their homes, and began to flock into Sweyn's camp from all sides to forswear Ethelred and accept Sweyn. * Ethelred, with his kingdom falUng away from him, saw that further resist- ance was useless, and late in the year retired to Normandy where he joined Emma and her children. So ended the year 1013; a more gloomy year had never fallen upon England; the land was wasted and desolate, the king an exile, and the people weary of their sufferings and without heart for the future.

The war, however, was not yet ended, nor were the people to have rest. Sweyn survived the flight of Ethelred barely a month. He had shown no disposition to reorganize the government, but had spent his time in collecting Danegeld on his own account. The single month of Danish rule had satisfied the English; and jy^fjf although the host at once declared for Canute, Sweyn's F^ruarui^ SOU, the English turned to their exiled lord. There '"^ is a forlorn pathos in their words of greeting : '*No lord

was dearer than their own bom lord conld be, if he would rule them rightlier than he did before.'' Equally pathetic is the response: '*He would be their true lord, and right what they misliked, and fbrgive all that had been said against him.'' So Ethelredi the abimdbned king came back, and his witan received him.

Canute, with his eyes upon the more substantial Danish throne, staid not to brave the awakening nation, but stole away in his ships and returned home. In Denmark, however, he of the war, received little encouragement; his brother Harold was already in power and he accordingly returned to Eng- land to resume the war of conquest. Ethelred's days were now fast ebbing. His strength was broken and his health declining; yet his energy in mischief -making was apparently as active as ever. The hope of the nation centered in his eldest son, the etheling,

42 THE DECLIKB OF THB KINGDOM [bdmuiio Iboxbim

Edmund; bat the king instead of rejoicing in his son^s popnlariiy, chose to regard him as his rival and lent a willing ear to the malicious tales of one, Edric the Grasper, earl of Mercia, Edmund's bitter enemy. Ethelred died at London, April 23, 1016, a source of weakness and dissension to the last. Canute, however, was no match for Edmund, who was steadily fighting his way to London from western England, defeating the Danes at Penselwood, again at Sherston, and finally raising the siege of London, and winning a third victory at Brentford. He then followed Canute into Kent and meeting him again at Otford, forced him to retire across the estuary into Essex. Then, making a detour by land, he again came up with the Danes near the modern Ashingdon. The Eng- lish, confident in the skill and good fortune of their king, were eagerly looking forward to the struggle, which each side felt must settle the issue of the war, when occurred the fell treason, which in a trice undid all the victories of the past year. At the very moment when the English were entering the battle, Edric the Grasper halted his Mercians and refused to fight. Edmund gal- lantly led forward the loyal men of Wessex, but, against the odds which now confronted him, victory was impossible. Yet from three o'clock until the gathering darkness of the short October day made it no longer possible for foe to see foe, the men of Wes- sex fought on. Then they withdrew and under cover of the night the fyrd broke up. But the Danes were in no mood to follow; the roads were unknown, and the country hostile. They, too, had suffered in the royal "hand-play" of "rank thrusting at rank with sword and spear." They were, moreover, "weary of fighting and marching and working of ships," and thought no longer of conquest, but only of truce. In a few days Edmund would return with another army, and then certain expulsion, if not extermina- tion, awaited them.

But Edric 's treason was not yet complete; he now exerted his infiuence among the witan to persuade them to demand a cessa- tion of hostilities. Edmund protested; but his protest was over- ruled, and at Alney near Gloucester ho was compelled to accept Canute as under-king and cede to him all England, saving only Wessex and East Anglia.

1016-1019] CANUTE 43

Edmund suryived this disgraceful treaty only a few weeks. His death was a national calamity. His brilliant triumphs are

*Hhe best commentary on the imbecility of Ethelred, Edmund, and show that it was not so much the degeneracy of

Englishmen as the incompetence of the government that had been responsible for the disasters of his reign."

The death of Edmund left Canute undisputed lord of England. He was then a young man, probably not far from his twenty-first

year; yet with remarkable clearness of vision and »SeMno. soundness of judgment he grasped the conditions which

confronted him. He saw that what the English needed most was peace, but that a stable and lasting peace could be estab- lished only by first securing his power against the machinations of possible reactionary plotters. Accordingly, almost his first act was to seize the archtraitor Edric and put him to death. Other executions also followed, by no means as justifiable. The infant sons of Edmund, whom probably he did not dare to destroy, Canute sent off to Sweden for safe keeping; but Edwy, a brother of Edmund Ironside, was outlawed and afterward slain.

When Canute had removed the men whose presence he regarded as a menace to the peace which he would make, he stayed

nis hand, and addressed himself to the task of winning carnSe!^ the confidence and support of the English. Though

no Englishman, he understood the English nature far better than their *^own bom lord." He connected his reign with the past by proclaiming the laws of Edgar; he assured his people of fair treatment by placing Englishmen and Danes upon the same footing before tho law; and to fortify his position in the only direction from which he might expect a challenge to his right to the throne, he sought and won the hand of the Lady Emma, the widow of Ethelred. He sought also to strengthen the conservative elements of English society by favoring the clergy and increasing the power of the local landlords. He also strengthened the great earldoms, bestowing a power upon the earls of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia, coordinate with the power which he himself exercised directly over Wessex. If he put the loyalty of his new subjects to the test by the levy of

THE DECLIITB OF THE EINGDOH

[~

an enormoaa Danegeld, the end surely would find favor in their Bight; for by tbia tax he was enabled to pay off his army and send the greater part of it home. Henceforth hia throne mnst rest upon the loyalty of the English people.

In 1019 the death of Harold opened the way for Cannt« to the Danish throne,

he had recently overran. This region, Lothian, now passed permanently into Scottish hands and henceforth exercised a dom- inant infinence in the northern kingdom.

In 1035 the long and peaceful reign of Canute came to an end. He was not a great conqueror; it can not be said tbat he proved himself a master of the art of war. Yet, aa a states-

1018-1086] CHARACTER OF CAlfUTB 45

man, as a master in building .up empires by the arts of peace, he has had few equals. He was a man of no vices and few

weaknesses. He had an nngoyemable temper which when ^cSmSL aroused rushed him headlong into deeds of violence, only

to leave him in tears of real penitence when the storm had subsided; yet too often the repentance came over late to make amends to the victim of his wrath. His father, Sweyn, in one of his earlier wanderings, seems to have embraced Christianity, but his faith was that of a barbarian; he thought that in adopting the cross he was securing the favor of some extra wonder-working charm to help him in his piracies. Canute's training, therefore, could hardly be called Christian; yet as soon as he came under the direct influence of English teachers he readily jrielded to their guidance and displayed a most commendable desire to profit by the new precepts so strange to his own people. The letter which he sent home from Rome reveals *Hhe noble conception^' of his kingly duties which had been born of these new influences, and goes far to explain the devotion of his later life so marked in contrast with the brutalities of the earlier period. He wrote: ''I have vowed to Ood to lead a right life in all things; to rule justly and piously my realms and subjects, and to administer just judgment to all. If heretofore I have done aught beyond what was just, through headiness or negligence of youth, I am ready with Ood's help to amend it utterly." He warns his offi- cers against oppressing his people in his name: ''I have no need that money be heaped together for me by unjust demands." "Never," he concludes, "have I spared, nor will I spare, to spend myself and my toil in what is needful and good for my people." It was in keeping with the spirit of this letter that Canute had dismissed the army of invasion in 1018, and filled the prom- inent places of trust and power about him with Englishmen. And yet he dared not trust the old fyrd altogether, not perhaps

because the men who composed it were English, but ThtihooM' because it was a fyrd, slow to action, unwieldy, and

uncertain. With his practical sense, therefore, he retained at immediate call a small standing army, composed of picked troops, well paid and well armed, the famous house-carls —

46 THE DECLINE OF THE EIKODOM [hauicavutb

in number not exceeding six thousand men, possibly not even three thousand. These troops were maintained by a yearly levy of Danegeld.

Upon the death of Canute his three kingdoms drifted apart. Emma had borne him one son, Hardicanute. But he left also two

other sons, the children of an English woman, Elriva, Harftid bome to him m that loose onion always too common

among sovereigns of Teutonic blood. Of these Sweyn, the elder son, retained Norway, but was soon after dispossessed by Magnus, the son of Olaf the Holy. Canute apparently designed England for Hardicanute, but at the time of his death Hardicanute was in Denmark, and Harold, known on account of his physical activity as Harefoot, the second son of Elgiva, seized the kingdom.

Harold died at Oxford after a reign' of five years. His death probably saved England from civil war; for Hardicanute, having

come to an understanding with Magnus, was already

Deathof i. , x- j l t^ i i a j.

Harold, Contemplating a descent upon England. A strong party, moreover, with the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex, at their head, had never given up the idea of securing the crown for Emma's Danish son. When, therefore, it was known that Harold was dead, the witan at once sent an invitation to Hardicanute to come and take the crown.

Hardicanute, however, proved himself from the first a despic- able tyrant, and when, after two years of such a reign as only such a man could give, he died **as he stood at his drink," the English hailed the event as a fortunate relief from a bad bargain, and turned with no feigned joy to greet as king the mild and pacific Edward, the surviving son of Emma and Ethelred.

SPECIAL TOPICS

47

SPECIAL TOPICS.

Civilization of ths Britons under Roman Rule: Ramsay, Foundatiant of Bng- lond^ I, pp. 49-1 1&

The Roman Walls: Mommsen, Tlu Provinces of the Roman Empire, I, pp. 200-906; Ramsay, Foundations of England, I, pp. 75-79.

The Nature of the Teutonic Settlement in Britain: Cf. English Historical Sevi€w, XIII, pp. 667-071 ; Terry, History of England, pp. 18-81, with accounts in Free- man and Green.

The Early English Constitution— The Kino and the Witenaoemot: Wake- man and Hassall, Essays Introductory to English Constitutional History, pp. 1-44; Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, I, pp. 133-236.

The Organization OF THE English Church: Green, The Making of England, pp, 317-300; Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, 1, pp. 146-178; Stubbs, C. H.,1, pp. 237-268.

Imperial Pretensions of Early English Kings: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 827-1016; Freeman, Norman Conquest, I, pp. 67, 118, 565 ^^ a/, App. A; Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 18U, 181, 1S6-196; Wyckoff, Feudal Relations of Crowns of England and Scotland, pp. 1-31.

The Treaty of Wedmore: Stubbs, Select Charters, pp. 63, 64.

Alfred's Laws: Stubbs, S. C, p. 62; Thori)e, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, h pp. 45-101.

The Character of Alfred: Asser, Life of Alfred in Six Old English Chronicles, Bohn, pp. 88-86; Green, History of the English People, I, p. 75; Ramsay, I, p. 247; Freeman. N. C. I, pp. 40-53; Gold win Smltb, The United Kingdom, p. 12; Plummer, Life of Alfred^ Oxford, 1902.

Methods of Trial: Ramsay, pp. 391 -201.

Organization OF THE Hundred AND the Shire: Stubbs,^. C, pp. 68-72; Thorpe I, pp. 851-261; Stubbs, C.H.,1, pp. 96-18:>.

THE Town: Blaitland, Domesday and Beyond, p. 9; Kemble, The Saxons in England, n, App. C: Stubbs, C H., I, pp. 96-103; Barnard, Companion to English History, pp. 186-819.

FALKLAND AND BOOKLAND: English Historical Review, VIII, pp. 1-17; Maltland, Domtsda^ and Bsyond, pp. 926-858.

ISSiiLJBm

PART n— FEUDAL ENGLAND

THE ERA OF NATIONAL ORGANIZATION

FROM 1042 TO 1297

CHAPTER I

THB NORMAN CONQUEST

XDWARD THE C0NFK880R,' 104S-10» HAROLD, I0$6, JAN 6— OCT. 14 WILUAM I., t066-1070

The reign of Edward the Confessor may be regarded as a preparation for the Norman Conquest. In 912 Charles the Simple had ceded the lands about the mouth of the T^hadaw g^jjj^ f^ ^y^q Danish chief Rolf, upon some such terms ^J^"^* as Alfred had ceded the Danelagh to Guthrum in 878. For a time the opportunities of expansion west and 80uth had fully occupied the attention of the pirate chieftains, or dukes, who succeeded Rolf. But the marriage of Duke Rich- ard U.'s sister to two kings of England in succession and the migration of many of her people thither, followed by the subse- quent years of exile of her children at the Norman court, had quickened the interest of duke and people in the neighboring kingdom. The spirit of intermeddling and mischief-making, moreover, was as strong as ever at the court of these be-Frenched descendants of the old sea-kings, and it required only some fancied grievance, such as was afforded by the strife of parties at the court of Edward and the alleged usurpation of Harold, to bring a new yiking expedition from Normandy, more formidable than any which had ever sailed from Norway or Denmark.

When Edward returned to his father's people he was forty years old. The spare figure, the *^ delicate complexion," the

50 THE NOBMAN CONQUEST [edwab© tm Oohfmbob

slender womanish hands, and the deeply devotional nature, hardly indicated the kind of man who could carry successfully the

burdens of the kingly office at such times. Meek- the ness was the one quality for which the medieval king

had little need. Edward was capable of a certain kind of fitful energy, but he possessed no power of independent action, and soon proved himself utterly unable to control the rival elements which were ever at strife in his court. Yet no king ever took his kingly office more seriously or tried harder to rule as a king should.

The one great man of the kingdom was Godwin, earl of Wes- sex. Leofric of Mercia, or Si ward of North umbria, might rival

him in rank ; but in actual influence and solid ability. Earl of Godwin was without a peer. His eldest son, Sweyn,

was already earl of the western shires of Wessex. In 1045 his second son, Harold, was raised to the earldom of East Anglia, to which were also added Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Essex; and the same year his daughter Edith became the wife of Edward. The advance of this powerful family, in the ordinary course of things, must have caused much jealousy and suspicion on the part of Edward's other English subjects. But the Xorman sympathies of the king had been from the first so pronounced, his favoritism for one man in particular, Robert of Jumi^ges, so conspicuous, that the English apparently looked with complacence upon these evidences of the growing strength of the earl of Wessex, seeing in him a foil to the Norman influence which sur- rounded the king.

Soon after the advancement of Robert to the see of Canterbury in 1050, the long standing rivalry between the Norman, or court

party and the English party entered upon an acute of Edward stagc, in which for the moment the nation trembled

upon the brink of civil war. Eustace of Boulogne, the king's brother-in-law, was by nature a firebrand, as void of tact and judgment as of self-control. In 1051 he paid his royal brother a visit and on his way home managed to get into a brawl with the people of Dover, in which several of his men were slain. Eustace rode straight to the king and made his complaint, and Edward

\051-1058] EABL GODWIN 51

without further inquiry ordered Godwin as earl of Wessex to destroy the city that had treated his guest so shabbily. Godwin, however, refused to march against his own people at the com- plaint of a foreigner, and putting himself sqnarely on the issue, whether England should be governed by foreigners or Englishmen, defied the king. But the witan supported Edward and when God- win found that his own people would not follow him into a civil war, he and his sons fled the country and were immediately outlawed.

The foreign party were thus for the time left supreme in the counsels of the king, and it was doubtless with a direct view of

perpetuating their power that they began to turn the S^^Jrt^'* attention of Edward to his kinsman, Duke William of

Kormandy, as a possible successor, and to this end managed to secure from the king something that could be con- strued later as a pledge of the succession. When, however, God- win and his sons returned the next year at the head of a fleet, the king, conscious of the disaffection of his people, was compelled to allow the Norman favorites, whom he could no longer protect, to seek safety in flight, submit to the restoration of Godwin and his family, and abandon the idea of a Norman succession.

The triumph of Godwin was as complete as the use which he sought to make of his victory was wise and moderate. **Good

laws" were pledged, and the sentence of outlawry c/^oduSk'^ passed upon Eobert and "all who had brought evil

counsels into the land." Stigand, the English bishop of Winchester, was advanced to Robert's see of Canterbury, but William of London, a Norman, was allowed to return to his bishopric, and Ralph, the king's Norman nephew, since Sweyn was now dead, was left in possession of Sweyn's earldom.

The old earl did not long survive to enjoy his triumph. His death, however, made little' difference in the growing strength of

the English party. Uarold, his second son, whose SJwS?^ gracious ways and forgiving temper had already won party!^^^^ the affcctions of the people, succeeded to the earldom

of Wessex and to all Godwin's influence among the witan. Oyrtli, the fourth son, was advanced to Harold's earldom of East Anglia, while Essex and the adjoining counties were

52 THE KOBMAN CONQUEST [hawka

giyen to Leofwin, a fifth son. In 1055 Siward of Northambria died and his son, Waltheof , who was a mere lad, was set aside to make room for Tostig, the third son of Godwin. With the mem- bers of this powerful family thus entrenched in the great earldoms, and with such Englishmen as Stigand holding the high places of the charch, the English party had little to fear saye from the eyent of a disputed succession. Here, howeyer, was a real and serious danger, and to forstall it, in 1057 the witan recalled Edward, the suryiying son of Edmund Ironside, who had now grown to man's estate in exile. But the unfortunate prince hardly reached England when he suddenly sickened and died.

Eyen Edward seemed to haye forgotten William, and for the moment turned his thoughts upon the little lad Edgar, the son of Edward Etheling, and the sole male representatiye of ThewcccB- ^YiQ line of Alfred. But Edgar was poor, a child in SSy^ioSe!^ years and experience, and without any definite follow- ing. If Harold and the great house of Godwin should support him, his claim might be made good ; but Harold now had ambitions of his own. He was, moreoyer, completely in the king's confidence, and was quietly drifting into the place of greatest power. Those who were in Harold's counsels, therefore, were not surprised when it was reported that the good king with his last breath had named the powerful earl as his successor. Edward died on the 5th of January, 1066, and the next day, the 6th, the witan who were present in London, met quietly, and elected and crowned Harold.

Strange to say, howeyer, William did not seem to know what had been doing at Westminster. In 1064 an unlucky shipwreck had thrown Harold into his power, and he had yirtually prepares forced Harold to pledge by oath to support his succes- sion to the English throne. This oath apparently William had regarded in good faith. At all eyents, when he receiyed word of Harold's coronation he dispatched a messenger to the usurper to protest against his perfidy and to demand tbe fulfillment of the oath. At Lillebonne he assembled his Nor- man nobles, the heads of the great houses of Beaumont, Mont- gomery, Fitz-Osbern, and Mortimer, names then strange to

lOee] 8TAMF0BD BRIDGE 53

English ears, and by appealing to the old yiking love of plunder, which was by no means dead in the race, persuaded the assembly to Bupport^him in an armed protest against the alleged usurpation of Harold. He was no less successful in an appeal which he made to the several courts of Europe. The pope, who had been offended by the uncanonical way in which Stigand had been thrust into Archbishop Bobert's place, blessed the expedition. The court of the emperor favored it, and although the court of the young French king, Philip I., affected disapproval, his great vassals and their people prepared themselves to secure their part in the spoil of the neighboring kingdom.

As if the dangers which thus threatened Harold's new throne were not sufficient, he had also to face the defection of his brother Tostig, who had been expelled from the northern earldom by his own people in the later days of the Confessor, and choosing to hold Harold as in a way responsible for his misfortunes, now began a war of revenge. Ostensibly he was acting in the interests of William, but discouraged apparently by the ill success of his first descent upon the English coast, he repaired to the court of Harold Hardrada of Norway and induced him to enter the lists against the English king on his own account. As the price of his support Tostig was to be restored to his northern earldom.

In the meanwhile the English Harold, apparently knowing nothing of this new storm which was gathering in Norway, was directing all his attention to the south, where he Bridge, Sep- collected his ships, and massed his troops, and waited for William to strike. But in September Tostig and the other Harold, with all their following, suddenly swooped down upon the Humber. Edwin of Mercia and his brother Morcar to whom the witan had committed Tostig's earldom, threw themselves before the northern horde, but only to be beaten and forced to retire into York, whither the Norsemen fol- lowed them and began a regular siege. As soon as Harold learned of the war cloud that had burst upon Morcar's earldom, he at once left his watch by the channel, and by one of the most remarkable forced marches on record, not only compelled the Norwegians to retire from his northern capital, but on September

54 THE NORMAK CONQUEST [hawma

25, overwhelmed them at Stamford Bridge in a pitched battle, in which both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain.. The saryiyors were glad to make terms and take themselves out of the country.

William had now gathered in the mouth of the Dives '*an innumerable host of horsemen, slingers, archers, and foot sol- diers," and durinff the weeks of later August and early thtcampaign September had been waiting idly by his ships for the wind to turn and bear him across the channel. Two days after Stamford Bridge, the moment came, and as the sun went down on St. MichaePs eve the great fleet spread its sails to the freshening breeze and steered out into the channel. In the morning with only two ships missing, William came to anchor off the Pevensey coast. The next day, the 29th, he advanced to Hastings and, here fortifying himself, began a systematic wast- ing of the surrounding country, with the idea of forcing Harold to come forward and fight him upon his own ground. So thoroughly was this work done that when twenty years later the great survey was made, traces of the havoc of William's men might still be seen.

Harold, therefore, had little opportunity to recover from the severe strain of his march to Stamford Bridge before he was called upon again to meet the issue of battle. Within two weeks, however, he was ready, and by October 12 at the latest, he marched out of London and took the great southern road which led away to Hastings, and on the next day, probably toward the end of the afternoon, reached the fatal hill side, which has since been given the French name of Senlac. The natural strength of the position which Harold had chosen, his evident purpose of fortifying this position and using it as a base in cutting off William's foraging parties, the rumor further that Edwin and Morcar were approaching from the north with a second army, induced William to change his first plan and attack Harold while it was still possible to dislodge him. Accordingly in the early morning of the 14th he set out from Hastings, and by the third hour had traversed the intervening eight miles and from the heights of Telham faced the line of Harold upon the

1066] HASTINGS 55

opposite slope. The plan of Harold was simple. He had only to hold his ground and wear out the enemy as they dashed them- selves against his lines, and thus compel William to retire again to his defenses at Hastings. Accordingly Harold's heavy armed infantry, the house-carls, each man selected for size and strength, clad in helmets and long coats of mail, armed with javelins for hurling and the terrible two-handed Danish ax for close counter, than whom there were no finer troops in Europe, were extended along the whole front, arranged in close order with their shields overlapping and forming the famous shield-wall. Back of this living rampart thronged dense masses of half-armed yeomanry, ready to confront the advancing foe with a continuous shower of darts, arrows, and stones. On the very crown of the hill, at the point where the ground begins to slope to the southeast, the spot marked to after ages by the high altar of William's Abbey Church of Battle, were planted the two-fold ensigns of England, the dragon of Wessex and the armed warrior advancing to battle, the latter the personal ensign of the king. Here stood Harold and the men of his house, surrounded each by his personal following.

The battle began at nine and lasted with varying fortunes until late in the afternoon. The splendid discipline of the house-carls resisted every attempt to draw them from their formation, until William bade his archers elevate their shafts, when the vast throng of light-armed English in the rear, no longer protected by the tall shields of the house-carls and stung to madness by the darts which began falling upon them out of the eye of the October sun, broke through the line of heavy infantry and bearing all before them, swept up the opposite slope to the very spot where William sat upon his horse watching the battle. William, however, rallied his men and the English slowly retired to their former position. William had now discovered Harold's vulnerable point, and by skillfully combining an attack with a feigned retreat and a well-directed counter charge of horse, he was at last able to thrust his horsemen through the gaps in the English line, and the day was won.

Of those who saw Harold fall, none lived to tell the story. Not a man of his personal following fled ; not a man was taken

56 THE l^ORKAK CONQUEST [hamld

prisoner. His brothers, Oyrth and Leofwin, liis nephews, Sweyn's sons, all perished by his side. Many conflicting tradi- tions concerning the fate of the king sprang up in a later day when the people under the Norman yoke remembered his gracious ways and just dooms ; but the men who stood upon that bloody hillside in the morning, when the Sabbath sun rose upon the ghastly remains of the struggle of Saturday, did not know what had become of Harold. A disfigured body was found lying between Gyrth and Leofwin and was buried by William's orders. At the time it was thought to bo the body of Harold. Probably it was; but whether Harold or not, it mattered little with the result. The die had been cast, and William had won.

When the news of the great disaster reached London, all was confusion, yet no one thought of submission and all prepared to defend the city. The witan hastily assembled and elected Edgar, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, to succeed Harold; but the slow but irresistible advance of William through Sussex, Kent, and Surrey, and the submission one after the other of the southern cities, soon began to affect the spirits of the motley throng gathered in London. The new enthusiasm of the people over their child king gave way to universal depression, and when William finally turned the Thames at Wallingford. and began to march directly upon the city, depression soon passed into panic. All, leaders and people, thought only of making what terms they could with the conqueror, and when William reached Berkhampstead he found waiting to receive him a group of English nobles with Edgar, including virtually all who were left in the city. William knew how to be gracious when policy demanded it. The little lad Edgar, the * 'uncrowned king," he received with a kiss and pledged his word that he would be to him a faithful lord. The leaders also, Bishop Eldred of York and others, he spoke fair; and they either then or soon after requested him to assume the crown.

The request was not mere servile flattery. England was in dire need. For two months the land had been virtually without a king. The presence of an invading army had also added to the confusion. Trade and commerce had come to a standstill. Men

i08640e9] BISIl^GS OF THE El^GLISH 57

oeased their ordinary pursuits. Every one waited for the issue. Even a foreign king were better than the continuance of the pres- ent suspense.

William accepted the trust, and ft>ed upon the approaching Christmas feast for the coronation. He, however, hesitated to ^^ trust himself to the men of London, and sent forward

for corona^ a detachment of his own soldiers to prepare such a

fortress as he had already erected at Hastings, in order to overawe the city and provide a rallying point for his people in case of tumult or reaction. When these preparations were com- pleted William entered London, and on Christmas day, at the hands of Eldred of York, received the crown in ancient form.

William had now won the crown, and his position was one of great strength. But he had not yet conquered the English, and

for four years every returning season saw him in the turn of tS^ saddle again, directing his terrible energies toward the

orushmg of popular risings in some part of his dominions — the people growing with each failure more desperate; the king, more pitiless, more cruel. The most serious of these risings occurred early in 1069. It began with the massacre of a Norman earl and his garrison at Durham, then spread to York where another garrison of three thousand Normans was put to the sword, and spreading through the western shires even reached distant Dorsetshire. The appearance of Edgar, who bad recently fled from Williapi's court, and also of Waltheof, Siward's son, gave to this rising a national character. Sweyn of Denmark, also, landed in the Humber and by joining his forces with the insur- gents gave to the revolt a far more serious outloolc than any which had yet confronted William. The people, however, were reckoning without William, nor had they yet fathomed the depths of cruelty of which his fierce nature was capable when once the lion in him was thoroughly aroused. He hastened

from the wood of Deams, where he was hunting when SiSi€wiS, the fell news came, to gather his men and strike such

blows as only William could strike. Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances was dispatched against Somerset and Dorset with the men of London, Winchester, and Salisbury; Englishmen

58 THE NORMAN CONQUEST [whxiam L

against Englishmen, the hopeless feature of the struggle to the men who believed themselves fighting for the liberation of England. Those who were taken in arms were mutilated, and then dismissed with maimed and broken bodies to drag out use- less lives. The men of Exeter not only refused to join the insur- rection, but with the Norman garrison charged upon the rebels. On the Welsh border a combined force of English and Welsh succeeded in burning Shrewsbury, but then dispersed. The movement against Stratford was more serious, and required the presence of William before the last embers were stamped out.

While William's lieutenants were thus putting down with a stem hand the risings in the west, William himself with a force of picked cavalry was hastening into the north. York redurfion of was a wastc of blackened ruins ; his castles destroyed and his garrisons massacred. But when he reached the seat of the war he found that the great northern army had dis- persed of its own accord; the Danes to their ships and the Eng- lish to their homes. Nothing was left for him but to hunt out the stragglers and destroy them as he could find them. He spent Christmas in his northern capital, and then with grim determina- tion gave his attention to the work of rendering the tumof Nt]rih' northern shires incapable of another revolt. For a ^inter'o/i07o. hundred miles the country was systematically laid waste. Houses were burned; crops, stores, ploughs, and carts were destroyed; all cattle were slaughtered. The people were left in the dead of the northern winter to die of cold and hunger. Even the Norman Ordericns could not recount the awful work without a shudder. William is no longer the king, the father of a wayward people ; he is henceforth the grim imper- sonation of conquest, and conquest too as it was understood in the eleventh century. When seventeen years later the Domesday Survey was made up, only one mournful word, but often repeated, was needed to describe the condition of these northern lands, once so fertile and so populous : **Waste!" **Wa8te!" ''Waste!" The work of conquest was now almost completed. Chester, secure behind its mountains and protected by an unusually seyere winter, still remained defiant. But this fancied security only

1070-1071] THE WASTING OF THB WEST 59

rendered the conqnest more easy. At the head of a determined band William made his way over all but impassable mountain roads, facing blinding storms of sleet and rain, floun- chatterand dering through swollen torrents, suffering incredible mgTtJ^ hardships, and suddenly appeared before the walls of Chester. The last fortress in England to hold out against him was taken apparently without resistance, and destroyed, and upon the ruins rose the Xorman castle. The surrounding lands of Cheshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire were then harried and the population left to starve as in Yorkshire. Streams of gaunfc fugitives, starving men, women, and children, found their way southward begging for food. The streets and churchyard of Evesham, far away on the borders of distant War- wick, were crowded with these pitiful victims of William's wrath. Many had perished by che way, and those who reached Evesham were so nearly famished that they were unable to swal- low the food which the good abbot Ethel wy gave them. The heartbreaking scenes which were taking place in the streets of Evesham were to be seen in the streets of every town and hamlet that lay within two or three days' march of the stricken district. Thus William girdled his kingdom with a wilderness. Of the sum total of the fatalities of this dreadful winter we can only guess. In a cold-blooded determination to destroy, regardless of the suffering caused, it is donbtf ul if anything in the fifth century can compare with the wickedness of William's vengeance. Surely nothing surpasses it before the era of Spanish domination in £?urope and America.

The great work to which William had set his hand was now accomplished. At Hastings he had won the right to present him- self as a candidate for the crown of Edward the Con- ®J|gJ^^ fessor. At London the nation, through its leaders, had accepted him as king. But it was not until the north and west had been crushed that the land was his. There were still occasional revolts. For more than a year the outlaw Hereward held out in the marshes of Ely. 'nie brothers, Edwin and Morcar, the heroic Waltheof, played their last part in these insurrections. Even the king's brother Odo

60 NOBMAK BBOBOANIZATIOK [wiiaiahl

and many others of his Norman following turned against him, but the throne which they had helped to erect was not to be shaken. England was conquered.

CHAPTER n

THE NOBMAN BEOBGAl^IZATION OF THE KIKGDOM AZTD THE

INTRODUCTIOK OF FEUDALISM

WILLZAM L, mO-lOff

William was now free to continue the reorganization of his kingdom and the restoration of order. At first apparently he had

been fully determined to give his new English subjects uono?w^, no cause to complain. He chose to regard himself not

as a conqueror but as a lawful king upon whom the witan had regularly bestowed the crown. Thus, in the formal charter which he granted to the citizens of London soon after his coronation, he sought to reassure the burghers by pledging them that no man should be disturbed in any right or possession which had been his before the Normans came ; no child should be defrauded of his inheritance. Outside of the city, also, William gave the people to understand that they had naught to fear as long as they obeyed his laws.

This magnanimity, however, did not prevent the confiscation of the estates of all who had gone down to Hastings with Harold,

or who later bore arms against William. So thorough Theam,fiscar ^j^g ^[jq ^ork that when the famous survey was made

at the close of William's reign, there were whole coun- ties in which not a single landowner of English birth was to be found. From these estates, the number of which reached up into the thousands, William was enabled not only to reward in a right princely way those who had followed him over seas, but also to lay the foundation of new power and influence for the English crown. Those who were not disturbed by the confiscations were compelled to repurchase their titles. In the beginning at least William, pos- sibly, did not intend this latter measure as a means of extortion,

IirrBODUCTIOK OF FEUDALISM 61

bat rather to liasten the return of quiot. If a man felt any unoertainty about the title to his lands, he had simply to present himself to the royal commissioners, name his lands and lay down his gift or fee, when he received the lands back again and with them a title which no man could question. It is noteworthy that the transaction passed off without conflict and without the shed- ding of a drop of blood.

Orievous as were the wholesale confiscations of William, they do not seem to have been resented by the people as much as his regulations of the forest. On the continent kings had The^oreaf monopolized hunting as their own special sport, but in England it had been the right of any man to slay wild beasts on his own lands. William claimed this exclusive privilege for himself and those to whom he gave a special license, and ^'forbade the harts and also the boars to be killed." Moreover, in order to make ^'mickle deer-frith" he set aside vast tracts as forest, the inhabitants of which were placed under special courts, the fort%t caurtSy and denied the protection of the common law. Of these forests the famous New Forest of Hampshire contained 17,000 acres. The foriBst laws were very severe; the penalty for killing a hart or hind was blinding.

It does not appear that William attempted directly to intro- duce into England the Norman system of landholding, or the care- fully graded hierarchy of the Norman feudal society. ^J?*JJ*2gJ[J^ Yet the theories and forms of English holdings in the eleventh century were not widely different from the Norman. The manor had in fact already largely displaced the old free village community, although the name was not yet known to English law. The Norman lawyers, therefore, found no difficulty in explaining the relations of landlord and tenant upon the prin- ciples of Norman feudal law, and English forms of landholding, without any specific act of the crown, easily and rapidly assimi- lated to the theories and customs with which the Normans were familiar. It was not more difficult to add to the English system the Norman tenure by military service, the characteristic feature of feudalism; nor was it widely at variance with precedents long since established by English kings, that William should

63 KORMAK REORGANIZATION j^^hxiam L

require of his great beneficiaries a quota of men-at-arms, knights^ bearing some proportion to the importance and yalue of the lands which he had conferred. The tenant-in-chief was left to provide for his military family as he thought best. He might keep his quota of men-at-arms in his hall and feed them at his table, or he might settle each man-at-arms upon a small estate set off for him out of the domain lands and sufficient for his support. Such subgranting of lands — subinfeudation — became qaite common during the last years of William's reign.

In reorganizing and restoring the government William found his greatest difficulty at the point where the administration came into contact with the local institutions which depended tecurina for their efficiency upon the support of the people. He first tried the experiment of ruling Englishmen by Englishmen; but he could not find Englishmen of standing who were willing to bear the opprobrium of entering into the foreign king's hire, and he was shrewd enough to see that it was worse than useless to attempt to enforce laws by means of agents for whom the community had no respect. Yet the laws must be observed ; the authority of the courts must be maintained. The king had no recourse, therefore, save to turn to his own people. At first he had confined the Normans to the strictly military duty of castle guarding, but little by little he began to introduce them into such civil offices as those of sheriff and portreeve — the one the chief magistracy in the shire, the other the chief magistracy in the great merchant town. Here, however, he was confronted by a new problem. The English rapidly developed a hatred for the Nor- man sheriffs and portreeves, only one degree less bitter than their hatred for the turncoat Englishmen who had been willing to soil PrMcntment ^^®'^ hands with the king's money. Even good men of fGiiifiwiry. ^[^ not hesitate to protect outlaws or baffle the king's officers in the pursuit of a criminal. Secret murders increased at an alarming rate, and as conviction was impossible, William, in order to protect his foreign-born subjects, empowered the sheriff, in case the victim proved to be a Frenchman and the hundred did not produce the murderer within a week, to levy a penalty of forty-six marks upon the hundred itself. The

CURIA REGIS 63

response of the English was to strip the body and mutilate it beyond recognition. The law officers then assumed that a body found thus disfigured must be the body of a Frenchman, and laid the burden upon the hundred of proving by a process known as Presentment of Englishry that the victim was not French.

In the main William did not seek to change the great body of English institutions. Yet by inspiring the old institutions with ir4iven^^f ^« ^^ mighty 'personality, he imparted to them new upmifoldinp ^® ^^^ ^®^ significance. Hundred-moot and shire- wotittofw. moot went on as before; but their findings received a new importance. The sheriff no longer stood in awe of the local magnate. He was the king^s officer, and executed the king's law. The ancient police system, once represented in the gild and later in the tithing, which made the local community responsible for the production of the criminal, reappeared in ihQ frankpledge^ but to be enforced with vigor and thoroughness unknown to the old English courts. The earldom of semi-regal powers survived in the two counties palatine^ Chester and Durham, but the vast agglomerations of estates, lordships, and shires, the giant earldoms of the houses of Godwin, Leofric, and Siward, which had menaced the crown in the days of Edward the Confessor, were broken up, their privileges assumed by the crown, and their lands distributed. The national council, the ancient witenagemot, survived in the great council, inagnum concilium; but the occasional and spas- modic gatherings, the occurrence of which, like the e^nSSium. meetings of the later States-General of France, com- monly betokened impending calamity, now passed into the impressive and regular courts, which William held thrice each year whenever he was in England. This august gathering, how- ever, soon proved to be too unwieldy for the effective conduct of the increasing business of the administration, and its offices were soon shared by a second or inner council which grew up about the king, and soon came to be known distinctly as the Curia r€QiM. curia regis. This second council was composed of the great administrative officers of the crown and certair. of the more prominent members of the baronage. At its head was the chief justiciar, a new officer instituted by William, who pre*

64 NORMAN BEOBGAKIZATION [wiuiAMt

sided at the sessions of the court in the absence of the king and who further acted as regent whenever the monarch left the king- dom. With the chief justiciar there were associated certain other high officials, besides a group of inferior justices, also known as justiciars. Of the great officials of prime importance, beside the chief justiciar, were the chancellor, an officer who dates from the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was the king's chief sec- retary and had charge of the royal seal ; the chamberlain, who was the king's chief auditor or accountant, and during the Nor- man period rather outranked the chancellor in dignity "in the judicial work of the country"; the treasurer also, who was the keeper of the royal hoard which was safeguarded at Winchester, and who sat at the famous exchequer table at Westminster to receive the accounts of the sheriffs.

William was not more generous in conceding rights of taxation than he was in renouncing other powers of government. The

English were not used to taxation ; the obligations of under the freemen were summed up in the old trinoda neceS"

8itas^ war service, castle service, and road service; so that the crown legally had no right to revenues other than those derived from the royal estates, dues from markets and ports, and the findings of the courts. The successors of Ethelred upon one pretext or another had continued to levy the Danegeld, but it had always been regarded by the people as irregular and tyrannical, and Edward the Confessor, who once imagined that he saw the devil in the treasury sitting on the money bags, abolished the tax alto- gether. William, however, was too good a business man to allow himself to be troubled by any such visions as had disturbed the peace of the sensitive Edward, and began again to levy the Danegeld. The old haphazard method of rating, which had been in vogue since Ethelred's day, was abandoned, and by a careful survey of the king- dom, a businesslike attempt was made to get at the actual wealth

and resources of each reffion. This important work, the day swTey, famous Domesday Survey, was begun m 1085. Com-

missioners were sent forth into every shire of the kingdom to collect information on oath as to the number of manors or townships, the whole number of hides, the names of

1086] THE SALISBURY OATH 65

those who held the lands, their yalne, the population free and unfree, and the number of cattle, sheep, and swine upon each estate. As a result of William's methods it has been estimated that during his reign the royal income reached the sum of £40,000, an income which was enormous for the time and of which no other prince of Europe could boast.

Thus, side by side with the development of feudal forms of landholding and military service, William revived and restored all the powers of the English national king, nor had he ^nwUemd ^T^J thought of releasing his earls of foreign blood from n^ feudal ^^^ duties which they owed him as sovereign. In the twentieth year of his reign he sought to give expression to this fact in a way which no man might fail to understand. The Domesday Survey had just been completed, and upon the basis of its returns he summoned to meet him in the great plain before Salisbury "all his witan and all the landowning ^MMtmry: Hion of property there were over all England, whoso- ever men they were, and required all to bow before him and become his men and swear oaths of fealty to him against all other men." Against this universal oath of allegiance no feudal oath was to be binding; no feudal contract was to stand which imposed upon the subject an obligation that interfered with his first duty to his king.

Hardly less important than the relations which William estab- lished with the feudal society were the relations which he estab- lished with the church. The deposition of Stigand IhtchS^!^ had in all probability been early decided upon, yet William had found it useful to retain him until the year 1070, when he was forced to make way for the king's old friend Lanfranc, the Abbot of St. Stephens of Caen. About the same time the primacy of York, recently made vacant J^*jHrttt* jjy ^j^^ death of Eldred, was filled by the appointment !^i«iS<&^ of Thomas of Bayeaux. Other similar appointments 32J5?'*"' followed from time to time, until by the year 1088 Wulfstan of Worcester remained the only bishop of English birth in the kingdom. These new men were in full sym- pathy with the great contemporary reform in Europe which had

66 KOBMAK RBORGANIZATIOK [whuaw L

culminated in the election of Gregory VII., and soon justilSed their appointment by instituting similar reforms in the English dioceses, forbidding simony and insisting upon the celibacy of their clergy. The church courts were made independent of the lay courts, and discipline was enforced upon the laity as well as the clergy. The English monasteries, also, were compelled to con- form to the stricter rules of the Norman abbeys.

Yet if William thus showed himself entirely in sympathy with the spiritual aims of the church, he was carefal to indicate the

lines where the ecclesiastical authority ended. If he aiid the royal established the independence of the church courts,

he also removed the bishop from the shire court where he had long been a conspicuous figure. Within the church, more- over, William would tolerate no authority rival to his own. No decree of a synod should be binding without his confirmation; barons or officers of the crown should not be subjected to the finding of a church court without his permission. In the case of rival popes he proposed to decide which pope the Church of Eng- land should recognize, for he allowed no pope to be obeyed in England or papal letter to be received without his consent. The demand of Gregory VII., who at the time was vigorously pushing his ideas of papal sovereignty within the empire, that William should likewise recognize him as feudal overlord, he met with a flat refusal: '* Fealty he had never promised; nor had his prede- cessors ever given it." Yet he recognized fully the spiritual headship of the pope and acknowledged the duty of the English church to contribute the "Peter's pence. '^

After the year 1070 William had little further trouble with the English. There was still much grumbling; and many bitter

words continued to find their way into secluded mon- sionof tiie astery records, where patriotic monks sought to cherish

the memories of the old England which was passing away; but the disastrous issue of the recent struggles, the flight or death or apostasy of the English leaders, and the failure of the treaclierous Danes to afford the long-expected help, had signally demonstrated the utter vanity of attempting to overturn the throne of the new king by force.

1075] WILLIAM AND THE BARONS 67

William, moreover, soon began to commend himself to the subject people by the very rigor of his administration. His ways were masterful and his measures severe, but the results f^vf^ were beneficial. Life and property were protected as ^«^"*'« they had never been protected under the native Eng- lish kings. Even the Chronicle is forced to recognize the '^good peace that he made in the land, so that a man might go over the realm alone with his bosom full of gold unhurt. Nor durst any man slay another, how great soever the evil he had done.'' The English, therefore, began quietly to accept the lot which they now knew they could not avert, and in a short time settled down to make the most of their new conditions.

K, however, the English were coming to be reconciled to the

rule of William, the men who had come with him into England,

who found themselves denied the privileges which they

IhebaroM^ and their kind were enjoying on the continent, were by

no means inclined to accept William^s system without

a protest. In 1075 discontent passed into open revolt, when

Ralph Guader, Earl of Norfolk, and Boger Breteuil, Earl of

Hereford, openly raised the standard against the king.

RirtiHrqf But, although they had been secretly plotting for a

year and William at the time was absent in Normandy,

the revolt was a disastrous failure. The ordinary shire levies

were sufficient to put down the rising, and in a very short time

Roger was a prisoner and Ralph in exile. England was well rid

of two such characters; but unfortunately Waltheof, who after

the great rising of 1069 had not only been pardoned and received

again into royal favor but had also been restored to his father's

earldom of Northumbria, had become implicated in the affair, and

w^ condemned to death by the witan. His death appealed

powerfully to the imagination of the English writers, and the

people long venerated him as a martyr.

The rising of Ralph and Roger would really be of little impor- tance were it not the first of a series of armed protests on the part of the Norman-English barons against the authority of the Norman-English kings, which did not cease until the reign of Henry II., when the old baronage was at last effectually crushed

68 KOBMAK RBORGANIZATIOK [willuh L

and the leaders driven to the continent. In these insurrections

it is to be noted that the strength of the king lay in the sup- port of the English nation, who needed no schooling

onhtrSlno. ^ teach them that the tyranny of the king was far less to be feared than the tyranny of the barons, and who

thus looked upon the king as their natural protector against

feudal lawlessness.

The relations of William to his own family were in keeping

with his relations to his people. William quarreled with his eld- est son Bobert, and drove him from the kingdom. In

Rrince Normandv the quarrel was renewed, and father and son

Rol)€rt, 1078. ,.,,, , ,. ,,1 ,, .^

met m deadly personal combat under the walls of Ger- beroi. On the return of William from Normandy in 1082 he quarreled with his half-brotbor Odo, who had abased the author*

ity which the king had conferred upon him in his ^^1082^^ absence by oppressing the poor and by indiscriminate

cruelty. William might have forgiven this, for he certainly knew Odo by this time, and from earlier experiences knew what kind of report to expect from his regency. But Odo, who possessed all the ambition of his race, had been carried away by a foolish dream of securing the papal crown by force of arms, and to this end had taken advantage of William^s absence to enlist men in England for his harebrained scheme. It was this which roused the wrath' of William and brought him home from Normandy. And when none dared to lay hands on the sacred person of the bishop, William went himself, seized Odo, and packed him off to Normandy to be kept a close prisoner at Rouen until his own death.

In the year 1087 William entered upon the last of his many wars. His foe was Philip I. of France, who had encouraged

Robert in rebellion and had always been William's of William, enemy either secret or open. At the taking of Mantes

William's horse stumbled among the embers of the burning city, and the king, whose body had grown unwieldy with advancing age, was thrown heavily upon the iron pommel of his saddle. He was taken to Rouen where he died after a loathsome illness. The priests and nobles who had eaten his bread left the

OHABAGTBB OF WILLIAM 69

body to the tender mercies of menialB, who stripped even the bed of its furnishings and left the dead king '^ naked and lonely on the floor." ^' Death itself took its color from the savage solitude of his life."

Thus closed the career of one of the most remarkable men of all history. From his mother he had inherited the sturdy limbs

and physical strength of the peasant ; from his father, wui^tu^ the restless energy, the latent fire of the viking race.

When he reached man^s estate, his towering form, just short of the gigantic, sarmounted by mighty shoulders, made him conspicuous among men famous for their commanding pres- ence. No man in his army, it was said, could bend William's bow save William himself. Enormous physical strength, ever under conscious control, was naturally accompanied by great per- sonal courage; 'Hhere was never beast nor man" whom he feared. Surrounded from childhood by appalling dangers, compelled to face difficulties which would have crushed other men, the power- ful mind matured rapidly with the powerful body. As a boy, he was marked for discretion and sagacity far beyond his years. As a man, he became taciturn and relf-reliaut, but quick to accept the good counsel of others. A thorough master of himself in an age of lawlessness and license, he knew the secret of controlling others. A child of ten, he had been left with a tainted name and defied by the most turbulent baronage of Europe, whose castles, in contempt of law, dotted every hillside, a constant menace to duke or peasant. Yet, at twenty, this boy duke had crushed his enemies, reconquered and reorganized his duchy, extended its boundaries, and secured again its old commanding place among the states of the Capetian confederation. But in the long and bitter struggle, Williiam had hardened to the sufferings of others; Caligula could not be more cruel, nor Attila more violent, when the wrath of him was once aroused. He was as pitiless as a thunderbolt ; where he struck, he blasted.

70 NOBMAN ORGANIZATION CONnNUBD [wiluahu

CHAPTER m

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE KINGDOM CONTINUED. THB ENGLISH

CONQUEST OF NORMANDY

WILUAMn., IWC-UOO HSNBTl., ltOO-1135

It was the wish of the Gonqneror that Robert, his eldest sod, with whom he had been reconciled before his death, should suc- ceed him in Normandy ; and that William, his second William son, familiarly known as Rofus, or the Red, should suc- ceed him in England. Robert, however, was not satis- fied and attempted to contest William^s right to the English throne. William, largely by the help of the English, not only drove the friends of Robert out of the kingdom but four years later carried the war into Normandy. Then the French king, Philip I., interfered and brought about an agreement by which each brother renounced his claim to the domain of the other; in case of the death of either, the survivor was to succeed to both dominions.

In figure the new king was a caricature of his father. He was short, thick-set, powerful in body, with ruddy face and restless The Red ejcs, and ever liable to violent outbreaks of merriment ^"*^' or anger. He had much of the ability of his race.

Yet he lacked his father's greatness of character; he had nothing of his self-control ; was personally lawless and ever a riotous liver. In spite of his personal lawlessness, however, none appreciated better than William the value of a well organized administration. While Robert allowed Xormandy to fall into a condition of tur- bulent anarchy, in England William sought to strengthen and extend the vigorous administrative system of his father.

He found an able instrument in Ralph Flambard, his chief justiciar, who had been originally a humble clerk in his father's chapel. Flambard grasped the possibilities of English feudalism as a source of revenue, and pressed to the utmost the advantages which it offered the crown in fleecing the king's tenants. Even the church was not above the exactions of the royal finan-

lOSd-lOW] ANSBLM 71

cier. Upon the death of a bishop, no new appointment was made until the king had enjoyed the revenues of the see for a season, just as he would by feudal law enjoy the revenues of a lay fief before the heir was put in possession. And then when the vacancy was at last filled, the new incumbent was expected to make the king a handsome present, after the manner of the relief which the heir was expected to turn over to the king when he received his estates. As the Bed King carried out the principle, it amounted to a virtual selling of the offices of the church, and was the source of much corruption.

The most flagrant instance of William's violation of the rightfl of the church occurred in connection with the vacancy caused by the death of Lanfranc in 1089, when the vast estates of Kc of Canter- the SCO of Canterbury were thrown into the king's hands. For four years William refused to appoint Lanfranc's successor, in the meanwhile appropriating the revenues of this important see to his own wayward uses. In vain the great council protested; it mattered little to the king that church discipline languished and that the whole realm suffered; nor was it until a serious illness in the year 1099 brought William to his senses that he consented to allow the revenues of the see of Canterbury to be applied again to theii legitimate uses.

The man chosen was Anselm, abbot of Bee, the friend and pupil of Lanfranc; already eminent among the theologians of the continent, and well known and loved in England. mSSm^^ Between such as he and William there could be nothing 2«J*jwy. ill common, and it was not long before their differences passed into an open rupture. A series of quarrels fol- lowed, until at last in a burst of fury William drove the faithful primate from the kingdom.

In 1096 the crusading madness seized Eobert with thousands of other princes of Europe. In William's shrewd and unsenti- mental nature, the wild enthusiasm which swept the Engiandand Continent found little sympathy; yet he was not averse to helping his brother off, and willingly furnished 10,000 marks toward his equipment in return for Xormandy in

73 NORMAK OBGAKIZATIOK CONTINUED [whxiamU

pledge. So Robert betook himself to the east, along with the host of restless and adventurous spirits who followed the First Crusade, while his duchy of Normandy passed again under the control of the English king.

William had now reached his fortieth year. He was still a young man, and no one could tell what would be the end of his career. In England he was all-powerful; none durst wuiiamiL, defy him. He had compelled the Scottish king to renew homage. His barons had seized the lowlands of Wales and its southern coasts, and their castles crowned the hill- tops of the border. He was meditating the conquest of Ireland. On the continent also his power and influence were rapidly extending; when suddenly all these great plans were cut short by the arrow of an unknown assassin, possibly a clumsy hunter whose brain had been fuddled with drink, one of a band of jovial com- panions with whom the king had gone hunting in the N"ew Forest. The body was taken to Winchester and there buried without relig- ious ceremony and without sign of sorrow.

At the time of William's death, Robert was on his way home

from the Crusade. The success of the enterprise had made him

more popular than ever with the barons, and by con-

^cessum, ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^® brutal tyrannies of William, his good- natured ways appeared like positive virtues. He had also in his favor the advantage of his early agreement with Wil- liam. There was, however, a new element in the problem which neither William nor Robert had considered when they made their compact, and that was the national sentiment of the English people. The English had long since abandoned the hope of ever restoring the ancient royal line ; yet the soil was dear to them, and the fact that the Conqueror's youngest son, Henry, had been bom in England, brought him a degree nearer than his foreign- bom brothers. When, therefore, Henry, who had been of the fatal hunting party in the New Forest, hastened to Winchester to secure the royal hoard, as the first step in making good a counter claim to the throne, the English welcomed him at once as one of themselves, and their cordial support gave to his elevation the appearance of a national choice.

llOO-llOl] CHARTER OF HENRY I. 73

Henry on his part saw that it would not do to perpetnate the abuses of the Red King's reign, and that only by a wise policy of

conciliation could he win the lasting support of the ^^''* nation. Among his first acts, therefore, were the arrest

of Flambard and the recall of Anselm. But the event which did most to establish the confidence of the people was the marriage of the king with Matilda, the daughter of Margaret and Malcolm of Scotland, and the lineal representative of Edmund Ironside. Thus at last the nation could look forward to a day when the sacred blood of Alfred should again be represented in the kings of England.

Of even more direct import was a charter which Henry issued soon after his coronation ; the first formal acknowledgment by a

Norman king of any ^ limitation on the despotism ^HaSyL established by the Conqueror." This charter was

simply an amplification of the coronation oath ; yet it was of great importance, for it gave to the nation an authoritative interpretation of the terms of the oath, made by the king him- self. In the charter Henry promised to abandon the evil prac- tices of his brother and to observe the laws of Edward the Confessor as interpreted or amended by his father. The restric- tion which he proposed to place upon his dealings with his tenants, they in turn were to observe in dealing with their vassals. The forests were to be retained as his father had held them.

In spite of the unpopularity of this last provision, the people received their new king with magnificent enthusiasm; and when

in 1101 Robert landed at Portsmouth in order to con- vorPtheMna ^^^ ^^^ crowu, the pcoplc rallied to the support of

their king as they had once rallied to the support of Harold. Before the solid front of the nation Robert quailed, and was finally glad to renounce his claims upon the English crown in return for the cession of the Cotentin, which the Conqueror had bequeathed to Henry.

The retirement of Robert left Henry free to deal with the barons who had held aloof in the moment of threatened invasion. Robert de Lacy, Robert Malet, Ivo of Grantmesnil, and finally the powerfal Robert of Belesme, were stripped of their lands and

ua-

76 XORMAN OnQAKIZATlOJX CONTINUED [hbnrt 1

a council of the tenants in chief of the king. It was no longer summoned at regular intervals, as in the time of William I., and Chanaein ^*^ ^^^ since become too unwieldy to attend to the magnurn*^^ details of ordinary administration. Theoretically its eoncUium, functions remained unchanged, but practically they were passing to the Curia Regis, which under Eoger^s management rapidly developed into a court of all work, with business as mani- _ , fold and varied as the relations of the crown to the

of Curia people. His custom was to confine certain sessions to

particular kinds of business. Thus the members might be summoned to give advice upon state matters, the Ordinary Council of the king; or they might be summoned simply as a court to hear an appeal from a lower court, or to try a dispute between the great barons, or to hear a charge of the king against a baron. Questions pertaining to the royal treasury also formed no small part of the business of the Curia, and when summoned for the con- sideration of such business it was known as the Court of JEzchequer. Later these several meetings differentiated into sep- arate committees, and finally into distinct courts.

The local courts also demanded the attention of Henry and his great justiciar. By the custom of granting private jurisdictions,

the jurisdiction of the old courts of the hundred and S^cowis, ^^® shire had been steadily contracted. Even lords

who did not hold their lands with special liberties, did not hesitate to take advantage of the natural strength of their position in the local community to enforce the fullest jurisdiction. Flambard, moreover, had indirectly contributed to the decline of the public courts by using them as a means of extortion, and the people had begun to abandon them for the private courts of the feudal lords as more likely to do them justice.

Accordingly, soon after Tenchebray, Henry set himself to restore the public courts, and issued orders for the holding of the

courts of the shire and the hundred ^'according to the SirMiocai fashion in which they had been held in the time of ccmrte, about King Edward, and not otherwise." Yet so unpopular

had the shire courts become, so suspicious were the people of the king^s officers, that Henry had to repeat the order

llOe, 1120] THE COUBTS 77

four years later and snpport it by fining those who continned to disobey.

Henry further sought to strengthen the local courts by sending out justices from time to time from the Curia Begis to sit in the shire courts, thus emphasizing their ancient character ^ISljwS;^ ^ king's courts. Such commissions, however, were as yet occasional and always special. It was left for the second Henry to complete the work by arranging definite circuits and fixing the periods of visitation.

In the growing power of the king's court we are to see the growing power of the monarchy. Nor was it simply that the king thereby had forged an eflfective weapon for overawing (uamntree the barons, but he had also developed a new source of income, always a primary motive at the basis of the judicial system of the Xorman kings. The fines and forfeitures decreed by the courts, gathered from the whole kingdom and swelled into a considerable stream by the time they reached the royal treasury, formed no inconsiderable part of its revenues.

The increase of the crown revenues through the courts, how- ever, did not save the people from the burden of direct taxa- tion; ''bitterly they complained of the manifold taxes under which never ceased." "He who had any property was

bereaved of it, and he who had none starved with hunger.'' Bad harvests, sickness, or other misfortune, might not be pleaded in excuse for non-payment; the taxes were none the less regular, the crown officers none the less exacting. In 1109, when the Princess Matilda was betrothed to the emperor, an aid of three shillings per hide was levied not only on the baron- age but on the entire population; the first instance of the pay- ment of a distinctly feudal aid by the nation.

Besides Matilda, Henry had one other lawful child, a son, who bore the family name of William and who by reason of the strain j^ of English blood which he had inherited from his

9Mce€9&um, mother, was exceedingly popular with the English. In 1120 he went with his father to Normandy, where the Norman barons formally accepted him as Henry's successor. But on the return a drunken crew managed to run the ship, the ** White

78 NOBMAN ORGANIZATION CONTINUED [hknbt L

Ship,'* upon a rock, where it sank with all on board. The ques- tion of succession was at once reopened, and Heniy set his heart upon securing it for his daughter Matilda. On January 1, 1127, the great council formally acknowledged her right and swore to accept her as their future sovereign. She had been left a child- less widow by the recent death of the emperor, and Henry pledged his barons to find her a husband in England. But in 1128, with- out consulting the barons, he married Matilda to Geoffrey of Anjou, a bright handsome lad, Matilda's junior by many years. The English lords felt that the king had betrayed them. The Norman lords hated the Angevins with the bitterness born of a century of border warfare. Yet Henry persisted and compelled the barons to renew their oaths to Matilda; and when in 11:33 prince Henry was born, the name of the grandson was joined in the oath with that of the mother.

Two years later Henry I. suddenly died in the midst of his activities. He had been a great king. He had his faults, the

somber side of his nature ; yet they were not allowed to ^^Snt^, affect his public character. Like his father, he was

cold and hard. He asked no man to love him; yet ho expected his people to respect him and obey his laws. His severity won for him the title of the "Lion of Justice." He saw that the people needed security from the oppression of the barons, and rest from war and alarm, and to this end he bent all liis splendid energies. His hand was an iron hand, but it gave peace ; and the achievements of the country during his reign, its mate- rial and intellectual prosperity, fully justified his policy. The Crusades had greatly stimulated all forms of commercial and industrial activity; vast sums of money had been released and put into active circulation. The close connection of England with the continent, the result of the union with Normandy, the peace which reigned in the Channel, placed the English nation in a position to secure their full share of this new life. English mer- chants extended their operations to Flanders, Denmark, Ireland, and Brittany, and even sought connections with the great trading and banking firms of southern Europe. The craftsmen of the lands south of the Channel, weavers and manufacturers of various

EDUCATION 79

if

kinds, who dwelt where barons were accustomed "to go a riding as their lust for war and plunder dictated, turned to the land of the peace-loYing king, and in ever increasing numbers began to seek its shelter, and thus added not a little to the development of the wealth and strength of the middle classes.

Henry was not unmindful of the significance of this industrial reviyal, and showed himself willing to encourage it by granting many charters to English towns. The charters of Lon- ^^^2iSS. ^^^ ^^^ Beverley are still preserved, and furnish valu- able examples of the first achievements of English towns in securing local privileges.

The quickening of the moral and intellectual life of the people also kept pace with the political and industrial revival. This phase of the new life naturally found expression intetteetuai through monasticism ; for the monastery was the com- monly recognized agent through which society sought to realize its better aspirations. It was the most important of civilizing agencies; it was not only hospital, dispensary, and asylum, it was university and library and printing press as well. The abbey, moreover, was the inn or hostelry of the period, and here the great folk of the age in their tireless passings to and fro were forced often to spend a night, and many a choice bit of courtly gossip fell upon the ears of the alert monk, to find its way ultimately into chronicle or more pretentious history. Men seemed to realize that stirring times were passing, that England was moving swiftly into a new era; and they sought to link past and future by leaving a fuller account of the present as they saw it. Henry of Uuntingdon and William of Malmesbury, the famous historians of this era, wore contemporaries of Henry and Anselm. Historical writing was only one of many ways in which the quickened intellectual life of the age sought expression. Henry himself was an educated man. He spoke English and French as a matter of course, and could use Latin like a clerk. He saw to it that his children also were trained in the lore of the age. His court was familiar with the forms and faces of famous scholars. His son, Robert of Gloucester, was the par- ticular friend and patron of William of Malmesbury. At Beau-

80 KOBMAK OBGANIZATIOK COKTIKUEl!) [hkioit L

mont, on the northern side of Oxford, Henry erected a palace, and the neighborhood became a popular place for the gathering of learned men. Here, sometime before the year 1117, Thibaut d'Estampes gathered some half hundred or more scholars to whom he gave instruction in letters. In 1133 Robert Pullin lec- tured on the Scriptures, and was soon after seconded by Vacarius, who began lectures on the civil law. Upon the informal begin- nings made by such men grew up in time the noble group of schools known as the University of Oxford.

In other ways also the monastery contributed to swell the tide of new influences which was moving England. The Cluniac reform had reached its height during the reign of the fSSrmf**"^ first William, and his policy of appointing Normans to rule over English abbeys, as well as the policy of intro- ducing into England new colonies of Norman monks, had done much to bring English monasticism into touch with the monastic life of the continent; yet, although the influence of these foreign ecclesiastics over the English clergy was very great, the fact that the new ecclesiastics were of foreign birth cut them off largely from the sympathy of the nation. In the year 1128, however, the forerunners pf the Cistercian revival began to reach diiUreian England. Their appearance was the signal for the beginning of a wide-reaching, religious revival , which left a deep and permanent mark upon the nation and upon the age. A new class of ecclesiastics came forward who owed their positions not to political influence but to their reputation for ^^holiness of life and unselfishness of aim" ; who sought to give practical expression to religious devotion in rearing hospitals and founding schools; who did not hesitate to confront lawless barons, and who compelled even kings to listen to the pleadings of the national conscience.

The churches of the Cluniac monks had abounded in decora- tions, in beautiful windows of stained glass; their services were Cistercian equally ornate. The asceticism of the Cistercians architecture Qj^^Q^iiei to the Service as well as to the luxurious lives of the religious orders. They despised ornament both in building and in ritual. Yet in the very simplicity of their buildings they

1186] BUCOESSIOK OF 8TBPHEK 81

attained a dignity and grandeur, a beauty of form, whicli the oaten* tatiouB Gluniacs missed altogether.

It was the custom of the Cistercians, also, in their desire to avoid display or ostentation, to search for sites for their monastio

settlements in some abandoned wilderness, some lonely £S2fi^SSJ^ ^Vot in the forest, or some waste bottom-land, where they

busied themselves in the homely but practical service of clearing woodland or draining fens. It was due to them that, beginning with the twelfth century, pasture-farming derives a new importance in the history of English industries. Large parts of northern England had been practically anoccupied since the days of the Conqueror, and these desolate regions afforded most favorable conditions for the breeding of sheep. The Cistercians discovered that this form of industry promised most abundant rewards, and turned to it as their special avocation, becoming par excellence the sheep-raisers of medieval England, thereby greatly encouraging wool-growing and all the accompanying industries.

CHAPTER IV

nXXDAL BEACTIOK AND THE RECONSTITXTTIOK OF THE KINGDOM

BTEPHBN, 1t35-ttSi EM2iBYU.,U64-1189

After the death of Henry the barons paid little regard to the disposition which he had made of the kingdom. At first they were inclined to advance Theobald of Blois, the son of tionof the Conqueror's daughter Adela; but Theobald himself

was indifferent to the honor. Moreover a popular can- didate was already at hand in Theobald's younger brother Stephen, Count of Mortain and Boulogne, and when the government of Henry declared for him, the barons to a man went over to Stephen. Thus it was that Stephen succeeded Henry I., and not Matilda.

Stephen was brave, generous, and debonair, but lacked the tact and judgment necessary to control successfully the elements that surrounded a feudal court; nor was it long before good men

88 ' FEUDAL BEACTIOK [

Stxpukv

began to realize that a serious mistake had been made. In 1136 the barons of the west and north declared for Matilda, and for

seventeen years the land was full of trouble. In 1139 War, Matilda herself appeared on the scene, and for a few

years the anarchy assumed the dignity of a dynastic struggle. But neither side was strong enough to make perma- nent headway against the other. The barons, moreover, were well pleased with the discord and really desired to exalt neither Stephen nor Matilda, "lest if the one were overcome, the other should be free to govern them." Some, as Geoffrey de Mandoville, the earl of Essex, sold themselves to either claimant as the humor suited; others, as the earl of Leicester, proposed to be neutral, and made war upon both. David the king of Scots, who was an English baron by reason of lands wliich he held in England, declared for Matilda, but took advantage of the con- fusion to Invade the northern shires in his own interests, and although in 1138 he was defeated by the Yorkshire levies at North- allerton in the famous battle of the Standard, when Matilda

withdrew from the contest in 1147, he was still holding the north- ern counties.

In all this turmoil the people as usual were the greatest sufferers. Castles had shot up on every hillside, each with its Srxfferinasof independent lord, who bullied and browbeat his neigh- tfcepeopk bors, spreading the terror of his name over the country for many miles around. And as "some would endure no superior and some not even an equal, they fought among themselves with deadly hatred," spoiling the fairest regions with fire and rapine. "They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those wliom they suspected of having any goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison for their gold and silver and tortured them with pains unspeakable." "They were continually levying an exaction on the towns, which they called ieiiserie (protection money), and when the wretched inhab- itants had no more to give, then plundered they and burned all &e towns^ so that thou mightest well walk a whole day's journey.

11891151] END OF WAR 88

nor ever sbonldst thou find a man seaited in a town, or its landi! tilled." Trade and agriculture were of course impossible; *'i£ three men came riding into town, all the inhabitants fled." "God and the saints," it was said, "were asleep."

Stephen was not indifferent to the sufferings of the people but he was utterly unable to curb the turbulent spirits which the Pj^j^^ reaction from the masterly ways of the great Henry had sup^^o iiiiloosed. His head, moreover, was none of the taveiUiu. clearest and his efforts to assert his authority only brought him deeper into trouble. Thus when in 1139 he arrested Roger, Henry's great justiciar, he struck down one of the great families whom he thought he had reason to fear, bnt he also brought the "whole mechanism of the state to a standstill." Roger, also, was a churchman and the attack of Stephen alien- ated the other bishops who had been heretofore friendly, and sent them over to the Angeyin side, headed by the papal legate, Henry of Winchester, Stephen's brother. When the national levies failed the king, he made the mistake of filling his ranks with ruffian adventurers from the continent, whose lawlessness and violence obscured in tlie minds of the people the real merits of the struggle, and made the king appear more like a tyrant than the champion of the good laws of the past. W^hen the regular revenues ceased as the result of the collapse of the administration, Stephen made the farther mistake of resorting to dishonest coin- ing, by which he greatly added to the prevailing confusion.

In the meanwhile Matilda was pursuing her devious way. In

1141 the crown seemed to be within her grasp; a great council

held at Winchester formally acknowledged h6r as the

drawa^ of "Ladv of the English" and set a day for the coronation'.

Matilda, t. . . .*,.,, i , • .,

But reaction came on so swiftly that long before the day arrived, the kingdom had again slipped away from her. At last the capture of Ralph of Chester in 114G, and the death of her half-brother Robert of Gloucester the next year, two of her staunchest and most important supporters, seemed to break her courage and she withdrew to the continent, virtually abandoning the dynastic struggle as far as she was concerned.

So matters stood when the death of Geoffrey in 1151 placed

\

84 FEUDAL BEAOTIOK [HuniTa

the young Henry, then in his eighteenth year, in possession of the yast estates of the Angevin house. He was already duke of aioBeofthe Normandy and wlien the next year he married Eleanor, wafi^Tulford, ^^® divorced wife of Louis VII., he added also her ^^^' magnificent heritage in the south, Aquitaine, Poitou,

Saintonge, and Limousin, thus becoming lerd of all the western feudatories of the French crown with the exception of Brittany. With this vast agglomeration of lordships already in his hands, Henry was not the man to forget his mother's claim to the English crown and in 1153 he renewed the struggle with Stephen. The army which he brought with him was not large, for a large army was not needed. The spirit of lawlessness in a measure had now burnt itself out; and although the old fires were still smouldering, all classes were weary of the aimless anarchy and longed for the return of law and order. The sudden death of Eustace, the eldest son of Stephen, also imparted a new aspect to the struggle, since how Stephen's last hope of securing the succession in his own family had vanished. It was useless, therefore, for Stephen to fight the matter out, especially since Henry stood ready to acknowledge him as king, provided Stephen would accept Henry as his heir, and upon this basis, the long struggle was ended in the so-called Peace of Wallingford.

Stephen did not long survive to enjoy the quiet which he had at last won ; he died a few months after the return of Henry to Normandy, leaving the great part of the work of res- cf the toration to his successor. Henry, however, was fully

equal to the task; energy, force, the love of order, and the masterfulness of both races were concentrated in the fiery blood of this Norman-Angevin. The foreign mercenaries were sent home; the illegal castles were either razed or taken into the king's hands; and the royal lands which had been frittered away when the rivals were bidding against each other for the support of men like Geoflfrey de Mandeville, were reclaimed. If a baron refused to give up his lands or surrender his castle when sum- moned, the king promptly took the field and speedily brought the rebel to terms.

From the pacification of the country, Henry turned with the

1159, 1161] THE 8CUTAQE 85

same fiery energy to restore the administratiye system which had worked so well during the reign of his grandfather. The great

council was reyived and once more honored by the ofthe»v9tem confidence of the king. The Curia Begis was also

restored and strengthened. Able men were selected for oflSce; Bobert, earl of Leicester, and Bichard de Lucy became justiciars ; Thomas d, Becket became chancellor, and Nigel of Ely, a nephew of the great Boger of Salisbury, treasurer. The sheriffs were required to come to the exchequer twice a year in order to render account for the collection of taxes and the management of the king's estates. The holders of small fees were encouraged to give their attention to husbandry rather than to war, and when in 1159 Henry undertook the war against Toulouse in the interest of Eleanor's claims, instead of forcing his tenants who held small estates to follow him over seas, he

levied instead the scutagCy a money payment of two

marks for each knight's fee. This was not only a boon to the small tenants, just recovering from the distractions of the civil war, who could ill afford to leave their farms for so long a time, but enabled the king by the additional revenues to draw to his standard a body of professional soldiers who were far more efficient in distant wars than the ordinary feudal levies.

In 1161, the venerable Theobald of Canterbury died, and Henry proposed to advance his chancellor, Thomas d. Becket, to the vacant see. Thomas as chancellor had been in full sympathy with Henry's reforms; he had also been as thorough-going a worldling as any of the butterflies that flitted about Henry's court. The weighty responsibilities of the new position to which the king would raise him, therefore, were not to his liking; he shrank from the inevitable strife which ho saw that he must wage with his headstrong master in order to secure the rights of the church. Henry, however, persisted and Thomas was made arch- bishop of Canterbury.

Never was king more deceived in his man; nor was it long before the king discovered the true nature of his new archbishop. The next year after the election, the king, at a council held at Woodstock, proposed to enroll as a part of the royal revemift^ tk^

Sd FEUDAL REACTION [hbihit

IL

two shillings which the sheriffs were accustomed to take from each hide in payment of their services. To this Thomas protested, and i«w2 ^^® vigorous words certainly were ominous of coming (^wwKistock, storm. "We will not give this money as revenue," he declared, *'but if the sheriffs and servants and ministers of the shires shall perform their duties as they should, we will not be lacking in contributing to their aid." Becket was right and Henry had to yield.

The issue between church and state, however, was not to be joined upon the taxation of church lands, but upon the broader question of the proper jurisdiction of the church ofjurudic- courts. Ever since the church courts had been sep- arated from the temporal courts, it was uncertain just where lay the boundaries which marked their respective jurisdic- tions, and as a result many clerkly criminals had managed to escape justice. Henry with his characteristic bluntness went straight to the point and proposed that henceforth clerical crim- inals should be tried by the secular courts just as ordinary persons, and that while they might be degraded by their bishops, they should be punished by the secular arm with the severity which the law prescribed. Thomas acknowledged the abuse, but claimed that the remedy was to be sought, not in sacrificing the independence of the church, but by greater care in receiving those who were presented for orders. In 11 G3 the question was brought to a direct issue by the case of Philip de Broi, who was accused of a capital crime but escaped by claiming benefit of clergy. The impetuous king would not be put off longer and in a great council held at Westminster, put the direct qaestion to the bishops: Would they abide by the customs which prevailed CfYunciUof ill ^he time of Henry I.? The churchmen, however, WMtmiimUr ^qyq wary and would not commit themselves, so that ctoremJon. ^j^q discussion was renewed again at Clarendon in the following January, when Becket finally agreed to '*obey the cus- toms of the realm." Henry then ordered the justiciar, Kichard de Lucy, to present a list of these customs; in nine days the report known as the Constitutions of Clarendon was ready. The Constitutions, however, went beyond the disposal of criminous

llM, 1176] LEGAL EBP0BM8 87

clerks and sought to settle the whole series of ill-defined relations of chnrch and state ; forbidding the church courts to punish a layman, or a clergyman to appeal to Rome or to leave the realm without the consent of the king.

To Thomas the constitutions were a cunning piece of tyranny,

and he left the council, determined to fight for his cause to the

end; while Henry as naturally determined to use all

w&hBcSi€U ^^® power to force the stubborn primate to resign.

Thomas, broken in fortune and forsaken by his fellow

clergy, finally fied to Flanders.

Henry, relieved by the voluntary exile of Becket, then went on with his reforms. In HOC, with the Assize of Clarendon, he began again to send the justices from the Curia Regis to sit ThefuMiees' j^ the shire courtSi. Besides administering justice, they were also expected **to look after the collection of the royal revenues, the enrollment of each person in a frank- pledge, and to see that all proper precautions were taken for keeping the king's peace." These justices were known as fusiiceS'in-eyrey from the Latin in itinere. In 1176 Henry formally divided England into the six permanent circuits which have remained with slight modification until recent times.

The methods of procedure, also, received the touch of the same master hand. Civil causes, such as a dispute between two neigh- bors over the boundary of their farms, or the owner- \tgai ship of a piece of wood, or the sale and purchase of

cattle, had in ancient times been settled in full shire- moot by. hearing the statements on oath of persons who claimed to know the facts ; the decision was given by the body of suitors present. The Xormans had introduced the judicial duel, or combat, in which the disputants, or in case of women or monks or the aged, their representatives, set to in the presence of the court and fought the matter out. The Norman method, however, was never popular with English townspeople, who were no such lovers of broken heads and bleeding faces as the Norman barons. Henry offered as an alternative to those who preferred, the privi- lege of bringing their disputes before a body of sworn men, who made inquiry under oath, discovered the facts, and recorded

88 FEUDAL REACTION [HnniT U

them. Jnst wheit this wise measure was introdnced is nnknown. In the Constitutions of Clarendon, the method had been pre- scribed for the settlement of disputes about ecclesiastical property.

The methods of criminal^rial in vogue in the early twelfth century were even more crude than those used for the settlement Crimtnca ^' ^^^^ causes. According to the English method the ^I^P^ accused man was allowed first to clear himself if he ^"H/. could by the oaths of his neighbors. If he failed in

this, he was put to the ordeal. The trial by battle was also allowed here as in civil cases; the accused challenging the accuser. Henry now, in the Assize of Clarendon, reinstituted in ^^ the place of the accusations of private individuals the

Clarendon, jury of inquest, corresponding to the modern grand jury, which had been discontinued in Stephen's time. This jury was not a trial jury. It simply determined whether the person accused ought to be tried or not. The trial then took place as before ; but the only ordeal allowed by the Assize was that of cold water, which meant almost certain condemna- tion. The indictment of the iury, however, was a very serious matter of itself; for even if tne accused succeeded in passing the ordeal, he was compelled to leave the country within forty days; a commendable way of ridding the community of undesir- able characters. If he failed he was hanged or otherwise punished as the judges might direct.

In 1215 the practice of the ordeal was abolished throughout Christendom by the Fourth Lateran Council; and as the jury of Ahoiuifmof inqn^ alone was inadequate to secure the .ends of ^hep^ justice, the custom grew up in England of supplement- ^^'^' ing it by a second jury, known as the petit, or little

jury, whose function was to review the work of the jury of inquest in a special case and either afSrm or deny its findings.

In the management of the exchequer, Henry's purpose was to secure a large and steady revenue, yet levied equitably so as not to overburden any particular class. Accordingly he abolished the Danegeld which had ceased to be profitable; but from the knights he took scutages, from the towns which were already ^Towing up as centers of wealth, he took tallages. The clergy,

1170] THE INQUEST OF SHERIFFS 80

who sometimes were inclined to claim immunity from taxation, he caased to bear their share by exacting from them special contri-

butions under the gracious name of "gifts," — do7ia. ofHenry'i From the estates of his own domain he received a

steady stream of ''ferms" paid by his custodians, and upon his officers also occasionally he levied the dona. The itiner- ant justices periodically yisited the shires, holding pleas and gathering fees and fines, all of which went into the royal treas- ury. Another important income Henry derived from the Jews whom he undertook to protect against the intolerance and jealousy of the people in return for the payment of enormous sums of money.

Yet although Henry honestly attempted to adjust taxation fairly, the burden rested grievously upon the necks of his people. -^ » ^ For this he was not altogether to blame. The sheriffs

The TruTuen

€tf sherisfiL^ as a body had been trained in the evil school of Stephen and were not above plundering the people for their own profit. Henry determined, therefore, to overhaul the whole system, and in the year 1170 sent out special commissioners to inquire whether the sheriffs were enforcing the laws; whether they were taking bribes; how much money they were receiving from the counties, and in a word to inquire into their entire official conduct. This was the famous Inquest of Sheriffs^ con- ceived and carried out in a manner worthy of Charles the Great. It was no mere "white- washing commission.'* Twenty out of twenty-seven sheriffs were reported guilty of irregular practices and straightway deposed.

For six years Becket had now been in exile. He had spent his time in a vain attempt to persuade Pope Alexander III. to Partial reeon^^^l^^^^^ his cause. But Alexander was sore pressed BedMand ^^ ^^® Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and was not Henry. inclined to break with the English king. Instead,

therefore, of taking up the cudgels for Becket, he used his infiu- ence to bring Henry and his obdurate primate to an understand- ing, but only with partial success. Becket insisted on condemning the obnoxious Constitutions, and the king as stubbornly refused to give him the **kiss of peace.'*

90 FEUDAL BEAGTIOH [ubnbt n.

Matters were drifting in this uncertain way when Henry unfor- tunately contrived again to wound the pride of the archbishop. He had determined after the French custom to mako ^JJ^JJ^^ his son, Henry, king during his own lifetime, and thus not only secure the peaceful succession of the crown, something as yet unknown in the annals of the Norman kings, but also provide for the better government of the kingdom during bis own frequent and unavoidable absences in Normandy. No one questioned Henry's right to have his son crowned. But onfortunately the privilege of crowning English kings had been by long custom and common consent conceded to the archbishop of Canterbury. Henry, however, was in no mood to honor Thomas, and allowed Boger, the new archbishop of York, an old Prince Henry ^^^^7 ^^ Becket, to hallow the young Henry. Thomas w^iminSter ^^ furious; he persuaded the pope to suspend Roger, June 24, 1170, and also the bishops of London and Salisbury, who had taken part in the ceremony. The king of France who was always ready to enlist against his rival of England and was never over-particular about the justice of his cause, was persuaded that an affront had been intended for him personally in that his daughter, the wife of Prince Henry, had not been crowned with her husband, and threatened war. The elder Henry quailed before the storm, and hastening to France, attempted to conciliate Thomas, and finally persuaded him to return to England. When Thomas arrived, however, Henry was still in France and the primate received but a cold welcome from tliose in authority. He first attempted to recover his confiscated estates, but with indifferent success; and when he complained, the young king laughed, refused to see him, and bade him keep to his see. The reply of Thomas was to renew the sentence against Roger and the two bishops. The elder Henry at the time was at Bures, keeping the Christmas feast. The report of the new troubles of Becket were brought to him by the suspended bishops and put in such way, we may believe, as to reflect most discreditably upon the primate. The king heard, and in a moment of passion let slip the fatal words: ''Here is a man that has eaten my bread; a pjtiln} iellow that came to my court on a sorry hackney and owes

1154-1166] HENRY II. AND IRELAND 91

all he has to me, lifting his heel against me, and insulting my kingdom and my kindred ; and not one of the cowardly, sluggish servants I feed and pay so well has had the heart to avenge me!'* Four knights heard the hot words of the king; returned to Eng- land, went to Canterbury, and there murdered the primate in St, Benedict's Chapel.

Indignation and horror everywhere greeted this act of sacri- lege. Henry cleared himself by oath of all complicity in the

primate's death; but his reforms trembled in the bal- the murder ancc. The Constitutions of Clarendon were nominally

abandoned ; but there was no one to take up the cause of Thomas and there the matter rested. The whole question of the supremacy of the civil power was left open ; but to leave it open was to leave the advantage in the king's hands and ulti- mately give him the victory. During the lifetime of Henry, Thomas was canonized, and his shrine, erected at Canterbury, Boon became a very popular resort for English pilgrims.

It is now time to notice the relations of the king of England to the other parts of the British islands. From the time of William I., the princes of Wales had acknowledged a nominal

suzerainty, and Henry II. had carried on three wars S^SSiSuSe ^^^ indifferent success to make these claims good. uee^irn^ The kings of Scotland had also acknowledged a

dependence of a vague kind. A suzerainty over Ireland had not as yet been more than thought of. The Irish had made some headway in the arts of civilization and had early accepted Christianity, though they had not yet become attached to the see of Rome. In 1154 Pope Adrian IV., as lord of all the islands of the sea, by formal bull bestowed Ireland on the English king and exhorted him to extend hither the papal authority. Henry at the time meditated a plan of con- quest, but gave it up in deference to the objections of his mother, who thought he had quite enough to attend to at home. Ireland,, however, was still in the old tribal stage with rival princes always warring with one another, and in 1166 a prince named Dermod fled to Henry and did homage to him in order to secure his aid. Henry, althoiigh still unwilling to undertake the quest himself, gave

92 FEUDAL BE ACTION [hbbtIL

permission to such of his knights as Trere ready, to attempt it. The adventurous nobles of the Welsh border, under the leader- ship of Richard de Glare, ^rl of Strigul, better known as "Strongbow," took up Dermod's cause, invaded Ireland and soon had possession of Leinster. Then, lest such a colony if left in independence should prove a menace to the quiet of Eng- land, Henry asserted his authority as overlord. The outcome of the murder of Becket was at the time still in suspense and Henry was probably glad of any excuse for getting out of England. He compelled Strongbow's followers to submit to him, and besides received the homage of all the princes of Leinster and Meath. Directly, the homage of the Irish princes was of little significance, for they ignored it again as soon as Henry's back was turned; but a foothold had been won in the island, a claim had been established which was destined to draw the Irish ever more deeply under the shadow of their powerful neighbors.

The family life of Henry reveals the same sad blight which seems to have been the common lot of medieval kings. His warm nature craved affection and loyalty in those the barons^ who were nearest to him, but Eleanor, proud and treach- erous by nature, was incapable of bestowing either, and her sons were equally false and undutiful. In 1172 the king repeated the coronation of Prince Henry. He had already secured Brittany for his third son, Geoffrey, by marrying him to Con- siuice, heiress of Brittany; and had made his second son, Richard, duke of Aquitaine. The danger in this scheme was that the sons, who were never overdut if ul, would grow impatient of their father's control, and in hope of realizing their inheritances would lend a ready ear to the flattei'ies of the king's many enemies. The younger Henry in particular was a foolish and heady youth who was only too willing to believe that now he had been crowned, ho ought to be really the king. He easily fell into the hands, there- fore, of those who were jealous of Henry's greatness and who sought to use the youth as their tool. Eleanor and the younger sons also took side against the father. The barons of Normandy were soon deeply involved in the rebellion, actively aided by the j^rincea of Scotland, Flanders, and Champaign. But the diffi-

1174-1178] ASSIZE 07 NOBTHAKPTOH 98

onltiea which faced Henry only brought out all the splendid energy of his character. On the continent be was favored by the dissensions of his enemies. In England his justiciars, de Lucy and Glanville, served him loyally and were supported generally by the sympathies of the {)eople. In Norfolk they took the arch rebel, the earl of Leicester, while in the north the royal forces, led by Olanville and supported by the men of Yorkshire, gained a decisiye victory over the Scots at Alnwick, taking their king, William the Lion. At the time, Henry was going through his seemly penance at the tomb of Becket, spending the night in prayers and tears, and offering his back to the scourges of the monks. The news of Alnwick was received as the sign of divine forgiveness; the rebellion was broken, the rebels were at the king's feet. Henry, however, was in no mood to punish ; he would shed no blood and he made scarcely any confiscations. Yet in the interests of good government he insisted upon taking all the castles into his own hands, and thus completed the work which he had begun twenty years before. Before releasing the king of Scotland from his prison at Falaise, he obliged him to 'SlSlo&e^m*, ^^ homage and acknowledge his supremacy over Scot- land. Tho sons, however, were restored to their former positions as prospective heirs to the various parts of Henry's dominions. Yet his trouble with them was by no means ended. The younger Henry went on with his intrigues until his death in 1183. The unpopularity of Geoffrey in Brittany made him also a source of constant trouble until his death in 1186. The death of Henry had left Richard the acknowledged heir to the throne, and the father proposed to transfer a part of Aqui- taine to the portionless John. But Richard was in no mind to renounce any of his lands in the south and made cause with Philip against the father.

Thus Henry struggled on amid the deepening gloom of

declining years. Yet he had not for a moment forgotten the

great work to which he had devoted his life. In 1176

ttfNcfrthamjh he renewed the Assize of Clarendon at Northampton,

and added other regulations for the better preservation

of the peace. In 1178 he further organized the work ol ^^

— ■•

94 FEUDAL REACTION [hknbt n.

Gnria Bogis by setting apart five judges and committing to them a great part of the judicial business, which it had been customary to bring before the Curia as a whole. This special committee developed ultimately into two separate courts, known as the Court of King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas, which with the Court of Exchequer already organized, constituted three codrdinate branches of the Curia.

The last great measure of Henry for the better ordering of the kingdom was the famous Assize of Arms. The Norman

kings had often found the fyrd useful both iji repel- AnM^iMi^ ling foreign invasion, as at Noi-thallerton, and in

checking and overawing the barons. To encourage and strengthen the national forces, Ilenry proposed that every freeman should find arms and equipment according to his ability, estimated by the amount of his property.

As Henry's reign drew to its close, his attention was turned to the east, where his kinswoman Sibyl and her husband Guy of

Lusignan were making a brave stand to secure the the Second Christian kingdom of Jerusalem against the rising

power of the Sultan Saladin. Henry, to whom the struggle of Guy was almost a personal matter, began to prepare for a crusade, but in 1185 the protest of his barons and bishops compelled him to abandon his project. In 1187, however, the Christians were overwhelmed in the fatal battle of Tiberias, and Jerusalem with the "true cross" fell to the victors. Europe awoke at the news as it had awakened a hundred years boforo under the fervid words of Peter the Hermit. The pope pro- claimed the crusade, and the princes of the west, swept along by the popular tide, dared not deny the demand of their people to be led once more against the infidel. The great council forgot its earlier protest and at Henry's suggestion devoted to the holy cause a tenth part of the goods of every man in England, the famous "Saladin tith^."

Henry found, however, that he was not yet free to move. He became involved in a fresh quarrel with his son Richard and the young king, Philip II. of France, who suddenly invaded Henry's oontinental dominions at a time when he was not only ill but had

1189] SUCCESSION OF BICHABD I. 95

been abandoned by his mercenaries on account of arrears of pay. Henry could make no resistance. He was driven out of Le P^^^ . Mans, the city of his birth, and at last compelled to Henry, 11B9. accept an humiliating treaty in which he conceded the demands of Kicliard and Philip without reserve. He died three days later, overwhelmed by the ingratitude of his sons.

CHAPTER V

THB GROWTH OF POPULAR RIGHTS AND THE LOSS OF THE CONTINENTAL POSSESSIONS OF THE ANGEVIN8

RICHARD I., 118^1199 JOHN, 2199-1204

After Henry's death Richard passed quietly to the English throne. The figure of the new king suggested great physical

power and endurance. "His fresh complexion and Richard, golden hair" betrayed the viking blood. In dress

he was showy and ostentatious; in the use of money, extravagant; in action, impulsive. Like Stephen he possessed the generous qualities of the soldier; but unlike Stephen, as his career in Poitou proved, he could enforce law and order. Yet he was full of visionary ambitions and possessed nothing of the Angevin aptitude for practical affairs.

Richard had taken the cross in 1188 and his accession offered him the means of putting his long cherished plan into immediate

execution. His father had already gathered a con- formc siderable hoard for the same purpose, but in order that

Richard might carry out his plans upon the scale which be now meditated, more money was needed, and accordingly he set to work in a way which shocked even that venal age. He instituted a general traffic in sheriffdoms, justiceships, church lands, and appointments of all kinds. For a gift of 10,000 marks, he released the king of Scots from the homage which he had recently sworn to Henry at Falaisp. He declared that he would sell London if he could find a purchaser.

96 THE OfiOWTH OF POPULAB BIGHTS [richabd L

By December, 1189, Richard's preparations were complete and he left England for Palestine. He had provided for the govern- ment of the kingdom by placing the aathority of the rinaabaence justiciar jointly In the hands of Hugh of Puiset, bishop of Durham, and William of Longchamp, the chancellor. The arrangement, however, did not work well. Longchamp was a foreigner and his insolent ways angered the barons. He quar- reled with his fellow justiciar, Hugh of Puiset, and induced Richard to remove him. He also got into a quaiTcl with John, the king's younger brother, who was powerful enough to gather the barons and force Longchamp to leave the kingdom. Richard acquiesced and Walter of Goutances, archbishop of Rouen, one of Henry's old and well tried officials, was advanced to Longchamp^s place. Then for a season matters moved more quietly in the kingdom.

Richard, in the meanwhile, was having his heart's content of intrigue and wild adventure. He and Philip II. of France had attempted to make the crusade in company, but they the Third had quarreled from the start. In June, 1191, he reached Acre where Guy of Lusignan had been carry- ing on a profitless siege since 1189. The Germans had attempted the land route to the Holy Land, but on the way they had lost their emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, and only a small part of their army had succeeded in joining the allies under the walls of Acre. Philip had arrived with the French crusaders in April, but noth- ing of importance had been accomplished ; the outlook was still gloomy, when the arrival of Richard, his skill and spirit, put new life into the besiegers, and within a month the city fell. Richard, however, was not to secure the prize for which he had come. The heavy losses of the Christians, the jealousies of the allies, the return home of Philip and many of the Germans, the treacherous indifference of others who remained, left Richard with depleted ranks to wear out his strength in the unequal contest; the best that he could do was to secure a truce for three years, during which Christians might visit Jerusalem or trade in the country. He then set out on the long voyage home, leaving Hubert Walter, .U?a crusading bishop of Salisbury, to bring home his army.

1104] BANSOM OF BICHABD 07

Bichard's troubles, however, were by no means over. After much buffeting by adverse winds, he was wrecked on the coast ic ^^ Kagusa. He then tried to reach England by cross- onde^^ ing Germany on foot, but near Vienna he was seized by an old enemy, Leopold of Austria, and thrown into prison. Later he was turned over to the emperor, Henry VI. When John at home learned of the misfortunes of his brother, instead of taking steps to secure his ransom, he at once spread the rumor that Richard was dead, and tried to get possession of the kingdom, in the meanwhile intriguing with Philip to prevent Henry from releasing his captive.

The pope and the German princes, however, were indignant at the ill usage of Richard, and at the violation of his rights as a crusader. In spite, therefore, of the intriguing of TiieraMom, John and Philip, Henry did not dare longer to brave the awakening sentiment of Europe, and the ransom was finally fixed at 150,000 marks. The sum was enormous. It would have been a serious burden at any time; it was more serious, coming as it did in the train of so much else. Yet the English kingdom assumed its share of the burden loyally. Each knight's fee was bound by feudal law to pay its aid for the lord's ransom. But the customary aid of 20 shillings per lee was inad- equate to meet such a ransom as this. Accordingly the aids were supplemented by the exaction of a fourth part of the revenue or of the movable goods of every man in the kingdom. Still the sum did not reach the ransom demanded by the enterprising emperor; yet enough had been raised to make a payment on account, and the emperor consented to release the king after receiving hostages in guarantee of tlie balance. So Richard was once more free. The ransom was finally completed by means of another levy of two shillings upon every ploughland of one hun- dred acres, the carucage.

After his return Richard remained in England just long enough to finish tumbling down John's house of cards, and then was off again to the continent to settle his score with Philip, leaving his English kingdom to the care of Hubert Walter, the crusader, who had been recently made archbishop of Canterbwrj,

98 OfiOWTH OP POPULAR RIGHTS [richab© i.

The task which was assigned Hubert was not an enviable one. In order to support Bichard in the war which he proposed to wage « ^ «. , against his continental foes, he was expected to raise

Hubert Wal- .,. , ,, , -.i.-, ,

ur and the funds from the already exhausted kmsrdom and yet cawmofthe keep the people contented and submissive. The jus- ticiar, however, fully grasped the conditions of his position ; he knew the temper of the English and saw that his only hope of success lay in winning their confidence and active support. To this end he sought to avoid the appearance of irregular or arbitrary extortion by throwing the assessment of levies largely into the hands of the people; he also gave them a more direct share in the administration of justice, taking from the sheriffs the selection of the juries of presentment and placing it in the hands of the "lawful men" of the shires. He also greatly enlarged the scope of these juries, not only inviting them to adjudge pleas of the crown, but calling upon them for support and cooperation in almost every emergency. Constitutionally these innovations were of the utmost importance ; they not only did much to restore the habit of local self-government, which was rapidly passing into a mere tradition under the deadening influence of the Norman- Angevin system of centralization, but they also inaugurated a course of political education which directly prepared that generation of Englishmen for the role which they were to play in the great era at hand.

Notwithstanding these wise and statesmanlike measures, however, discontent steadily spread among all classes and finally solidified into a stubborn determination to pay no more taxes. When in 1198 Bichard sent over a demand not only for more money but for men as well, even the saintly Hugh of Avalon, bishop of Lincoln, who was reverenced in England as no other man since the death of Anselm, protested against the unheard-of exaction. Hubert durst not press the demand for men, although the barons finally submitted to the levy of a carucage, carvcagc, at the rate of five shillings on each carucate. No

1198*

one, however, paid the tax willingly; the monks refused outright, and were brought to terms only by threat of outlawry. Poor Hubert was now pressed from all sides. The

1108, lld9j DEATH OF BIOHABD 99

taxpayers held him responsible for the exactions, and the absent king held him responsible for the tardy payment; while the pope on his own account sent him some very plain-spoken advice. "It was not worthy," he wrote, 'Hhat an archbishop should be a judge and a taskmaster." Feeling that he was discredited on all sides, and undoubtedly weary of the whole business, Hubert resigned, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, another of Henry's II. 's men, was appointed in his place. The new justiciar was quite as able as Hubert, but more stern and troubled by fewer scruples. The administration, however, was suddenly confronted with a new series of problems by the death of Richard.

Since his return to the continent Eichard had been engaged in almost constant strife with the French king but not without

important results. The rebels of Aquitaine had been thecfmtinent, reduced; Philip had been checked on the Norman

border ; and Flanders, the ally of Philip, had been bought off by a well-timed bribe. The counts of Chartres, Cham- pagne, Boulogne, and others, including the most powerful vassals of Philip, were also leagued in revolt; while by Richard's influ- ence in the German diet he had managed to secure the election of his nephew, Otto of Saxony, as Henry VI. 's successor, and had laid the foundation of an alliance of England and the empire. In order to hold his Norman frontier against Philip, Richard had seized the church lands where "the Seine bends suddenly at Gaillon in a great semicircle to the north, and where the valley of Les Andolys breaks the line of cliffs along its banks," and here on a spur of the chalk hills, connected with the plateau in the rear by a narrow neck, at the dizzy height of three hundred feet above the river, he had reared his "Saucy Castle," the Chateau Gaillurd.

The completion of this great frontier fortress was to be the pre- liminary to a final and crushing blow which Richard had prepared

for Philip. Richard's allies were all ready and only dea^^m, ^^^^7 was needed. But to get this Richard was at his

wit's end, for England had af last failed him. Then came a mysterious report of a remarkable treasure-trove, which had been uncovered at Chaluz. The lord of Chaluz refused to

I III rt I fabAiMJbiibMMifeAAHfa^

100 GROWTH OP POPULAR RIGHTS [richabd L

give np the treasure, and Richard in seeking to enforce his claims as overlord, received his death wound beneath the walls.

Directly, ^Bichard had had little to do with England. His personal career belongs to the continent. Only seven months, all told, of the ten years of his reign were spent in his ofmcfSird*8 island kingdom, and yet no ten years of English his- tory are more important than these years of Eichard's absentee reign. It was an era when the results of Norman and Angevin rule gathered solidity and permanence ; when the nation was beginning to realize the full benefit of the policy of the two great Henrys in crushing the baronage and reducing all elements to the sway of the laws, and when older popular elements, by taking advantage of the needs of the crown, were gathering new strength in organization.

Thic latter movement was particularly noticeable in the progress of the towns. The early English towns had grown up around castles or monasteries. For the most part mtd tA«?ad«. *^®y ^®^® merely overgrown villages where the country folk came to find a market, and where in rude and ill -kept huts the small merchant or the poor artisan sheltered himself and his family. Since the Conquest, as a result of the increased foreign trade, the seaport towns had risen to consider- able importance, and in turn had contributed not a little to the growing wealth of the more humble towns of the interior. The kings of foreign blood knew the value of local organization in these centers of denser population, its necessity as an adjunct of administration, and did not hesitate to encourage the people to assume some responsibility in matters of local government. In this they were assisted by the presence of gilds, which had been a potent infiuence in English town life from the earliest times. These gilds originally were private associations of one kind or another organized by citizens for mutual help. Of these the merchant gilds very early assumed an importance and infiuence beyond any of the others. Often they were strong enough to control all the affairs of the town, assuming practically the func- tions of a town council. The gild hall became virtually the city hallf and the members of the gild were distinguished from the

THE PBIVILEGE8 OF TOWNS lOl

herd of unpriyileged classes as the governing or citizen body. They jealously guarded their interests against outsiders and, save in the article of food, would tolerate no rivalry in trade within the city market from any who were not gild brethren.

For the most part the towns were situated on the demesnes of the crown, and as they increased in wealth and strength, their first thouirht naturally was to free themselves from the e/toiim«. control of the sheriff and secure the right of adminis- tering the functions of his office themselves. The king, moreover, soon discovered that the people were better tax collectors than the sheriff, and found that it was for his interest to allow the towns to pay a fixed maximum sum and collect it themselves in their own way. This privilege was known as the grant of firma bnrghi. The citizens, however, were not quit of the authority of the sheriff as long as they were under the juris- diction of the sheriff's court. Besides the firma burghi, therefore, the towns sought also to secure the privilege of having courts of their own, under the charge of their own magistrates. But these privileges carried with them serious duties, and in order to fulfill them properly some corporate organization was necessary. When so organized, with its liberties defined and confirmed in legal form by a charter, the town became a corporation, or commuua. The Henrys granted many such charters with the sincere desire no doubt of encouraging wealth and trade and building up cities. Richard granted a large number not because he cared for the towns, but because he needed money. Yet the results were the same; the charter was just as good and the privileges as valuable and just as highly prized, whether they came from the political foresight of the king or from his avarice.

Of the cities benefited by this generous policy of the Norman and Angevin kings, London was the most important as well as the most conspicuous. It then of course bore no compar- ]jj**jj ^ ison to the present city ; but its political infiuence at critical periods of the nation's history was even more marked and important. It was the first city of the realm in size and wealth. It was naturally the greatest center of trade; from all the kingdom the roads converged upon its gates, and from the

103 OBOWTH OF POPULAB RIGHTS [Jomr

broad mouth of the Thames its shipping went forth each year to seek trade in unaccustomed seas. The importance of the city very wmiam'8 *^^^ brought to her people unusual privileges, and Lon- eharter. ^qj^ became a sort of "standard of the amount of self- gOYernment at which the other towns of the country might be expected to aim. " William I. gave the city its first charter ; a brief one, the provisions of which require only eight lines of modem book print to state; and yet it meant much, for in these eight lines the Conqueror gave his word to the citizens that their property should not be taken from them, and that their privileges should be con- tinued. In Henry I.'s charter the Londoners were put into possession of more extensive rights: they were granted the ferm of Middlesex "with the right of appointing the sheriff; they were freed from the immediate jurisdiction of any tribunal except of their own appointment, from several universal imposts, from the obligation to accept trial by battle, from liability to misericordia^ or entire forfeiture, as well as from tolls and local exactions." They were also secured their separate franchises and their weekly courts. Yet Henry's charter did not create the communa, but left the city still an "accumulation of distinct and different cor- porate bodies." Nor was it until Richard's reign that London assumed the character of a compact and perpetual organization under its lord mayor and twelve aldermen, each representing one of the twelve wards of the city.

The death of Richard at once delivered Philip from the toils which Richard had drawn around him. Philip, moreover, did not

propose to allow the enormous power represented by Mjainst the lordship of the Angevin dominions to remain longer

in one pair of hands, and although he and John had worked together in the earlier intrigues against Richard, he now turned upon John, who had been named as Richard's heir, and supported the claims of Arthur, the son of Geoffrey of Brittany who had died in 1186. The success of John, however, in secur- ing Normandy and Aquitaine besides the English throne, the hostile attitude of the pope, who had a quarrel of his own with Philip, and the preparation of the recent allies of Richard to invade France from the northeast, warned Philip to change his

Id03-1204] LOSS OF ANOEYIN DOMINIONS 103

policy for the present, throw over Arthur, and receive John*a homage. But it was not long before John himself by his tyran- nies in Poitou afforded Philip an opportunity of reopening the case. He summoned John to Paris to answer the charges of his vassals of Poitou, and when the appointed day came and John failed to appear, Philip in accordance with feudal law, declared him to be a contumacious vassal and to have forfeited by default all fiefs which he held of the French crown.

Philip proceeded at once to carry out the decree of his court, invaded Normandy, and began reducing its castles. Arthur was

taken by John before the Castle of Mirabeau and of Arthur lodged at Rouen, the last that was seen of this unfor- Angevin tunate prince. The Norman castles fell one after the

other, and finally, after a year's siege, even Chateau GaiUard passed into Philip's hands, March, 1204. The Seine was now open to Philip's armies. John's vassals of Normandy refused longer to support him. In April, 1204, Eleanor died, and with her, John lost the last tie which bound him to his continental barons. Before the summer closed, Anjou, Toundne, and Maine had also passed permanently into Philip's hands; the next year Poitou was overrun, and of all the splendid possessions of the Angevin kings on the continent only scattered fragments remained, — Gascony, Guienne, and one or two strongholds in Poitou.

At the time Englishmen regarded the triumph of Philip with a sense of deep humiliation. Yet nothing more fortunate could

have happened to the English state. Bichard's absentee Smo^j^ reign had tested and proved the splendid administrative wl^ienL^^ machinery of Henry II. Richard, moreover, had been

compelled by his need of money to allow the people a voice in the assessment of taxes. The shire-moots, also, had been given control of pleas of the crown. Taxation and representa- tion became thus linked indissolubly in the national mind, and the people began to take their first steps in actual self-govern- ment. When, therefore, John was bowed out of the continent by the wily Philip, he found himself face to face with a nation that had passed its nonage and would no longer tolerate abuses

104 THE QBEAT CHABTER [Johh

which had sprung of an irresponsible kingship. The old baronial families, who like the king were also severed from continental interests, forgot their foreign parentage and once and for all time accepted the position of English subjects of an English king. The nation felt the accession of strength and came very soon to recognize the baronage as a part of itself; and although the influ- ence of the French language and French social customs lingered long after the era of John, the power of French political ideas over England was broken, and the nation was left free to develop its own peculiar institutions and in its own way.

CHAPTER VI

THE GREAT CHABTER JOHH, 1204-12J6

John's troubles at home began soon after the last triumph of Philip. On July 12, 1205, the veteran Hubert Walter, the arch- The contested ^^^hop of Canterbury, died. Next to the crown there caruSri^ry ^^ ^^ morc important office in the kingdom. What ^**^ its influence might be in shaping the destiny of the

realm or in braving wayward kings had been shown in the careers of Dunstan, Lanfranc, Anselm, Theobald, and Becket. John, therefore, fully realized the importance of filling the vacancy with one of his own creatures, if he would control the policy of the church. But unfortunately for John's plans, the right of electing to this important post had long been a subject of dispute between the suffragan bishops of the metropolitan province and the monks of Christ Church Priory, who since the days of Augustine had acknowledged the archbishop as their abbot. The king also had a right in equity to a voice in an appointment so closely related to the welfare of his realm, and since the Conquest, had generally named the candidate to be elected. When, therefore, John learned that on the very night following Hubert's death, the junior monks of Christ Church had secretly met, and had not

Id07, IdOe] STEPHfiK LANOTOK 106

only elected the sub-prior, Heginald, to the primacy, but had forth- with, without waiting for the approval of the king, dispatched the archbishop-elect to Kome to secure confirmation at tiie hands of the pope, John was furious. The senior monks and the bishops were also deeply yezed. Reginald was a babbling, shallow sort of fellow, hardly to be taken seriously; yet his election, if once con- firmed by the pope, apart from the question of right involyed, might proYC grave enough. All parties, therefore, appealed to Rome. John, however, first announced as his candidate John de Gray, bishop of Norwich, had him elected and put in charge of the see, and then sent him off to plead his cause at the Roman conrt, trusting to win his case by the free use of money among the officials who were supposed to be in the confidence of the pope.

The low cunning of John was no match for the statesmanlike pope. Innocent III., who after letting the case drag on for a full Th^d^rH y^^ *°^ * I^bUj declared that the right of election lay ofLanoton, with the mouks, rejected both candidates upon the ground that neither election had been canonica!, and persuaded the proctors of the monks of Christ Church who were present, to elect an Englishman named Stephen Langton. The nomination by the pope was clearly a violation of the right both of the English church and of the English crown; yet never was usurpation more fully justified by the results. A better choice could not have been made. Langton was a man singularly pure and noble in purpose, of great personal dignity, wide learning, and had been recently raised to the high dignity of cardinal. John refused to assent to the papal choice; and when the pope proceeded to consecrate his candidate notwithstanding, John swore that he would never allow Langton to land in England.

John was now face to face with a man who was accustomed to having his way. A wise king might have rallied his people about him and fought out the issue upon the broad princi- ^^!' P^®^ ^' ^^® independence of the English crown. But John was not wise. He became violent, and descended to petty persecutions of the monks of Christ Church. He threatened to drive all clergymen from the realm. He swore he would seize and mutilate every Italian he found in his kingdom.

106 THS GREAT CHARTER [jon

The reply of Innocent to John's furious outbreak was the inter- dict. This was an ecclesiastical weapon which Innocent had recently used with great effectiveness against Philip II.; but John paid little attention to the murmurs of his people and at once struck back at the pope by confiscating the property of the churchmen who obeyed the interdict. Innocent replied by

excommunicating John. John then confiscated the cation of estates of the bishops, and used the money to strengthen

his military power. He was thus enabled to force the king ofScots to rendw his homage and pay a levy to the amount of £10,000. He reduced Ireland to order, cut up the English district into counties, and introduced English laws. With the same vigorous hand he turned upon Llewelyn, prince of Wales, and compelled him to submit. Thus John had only fattened upon the thunders of Innocent.

Innocent, however, was now fully aroused, and in 1211 announced through his envoys, PanduLf and Durand, that as his

next and final step he would absolve the subjects of depoguum. John from their allegiance, formally depose him, and pare$to summou Philip of France to carry out the decree.

meet U. i

John knew both men ; he knew that the threat was not idle. Yet John apparently had no thought of yielding. His Angevin blood was up, and he began to strike about him in blind fury. The churchmen who defied him, he drove from the king- dom. He did not wait for the nobles to be detected in actual conspiracy. If a man had power to injure him, that was suffi- cient; his castles were seized and his family held as hostages for his good behavior. England was overawed; John^s enemies at home were paralyzed, and an "enormous host" gathered at his call to resist the threatened invasion. Abroad, John renewed the old alliance with Otto IV. and Ferrand, count of Flanders, who had their own quarrel with both Philip and Innocent, and stood ready to invade France the moment Philip should sail for Eng- land. The outlook was not inviting to Philip; it was not alto- gether gloomy for John. He was fully prepared to defy the threat of deposition as he had defied the interdict and apparently wj^h a fair chance of success. But suddenly at the very moment

12l8] THE COUNCIL OF ST. ALBAKS 107

when the Curia had decreed the deposition, and the legate was on the way to England, John made that strange move which it is customary to interpret sometimes as an exhibition of despicable weakness, and sometimes as an exhibition of remarkable and farsighted statesmanship. On the 15th of May, 1213, John met Pandulf , the papal legate, near Dover and made his submission. He "accepted Langton as archbishop, undertook to repay certain john^Bhom- ©^o^mous sums which he had recently exacted from 2?^f^iJlf.. the churches," and restore the estates which he had

pope. May '

10. 121S. ruined. He then surrendered his kingdom to the see

of Home, and received it again as the pope^s vassal, agreeing

also to pay a tribute of 1,000 marks a year. Innocent withdrew

from the coalition and forbade Philip to proceed.

The closing of the quarrel with the pope, however, by no

means ended John's troubles. It only cleared the field for

the greater issue of his reign, which was now at

inmie of hand. Matters on the continent had gone too far to

joto'. r^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^j ^^^ ^^ Fighting soon

began between Philip and the Flemings. John sought to assist his allies by sending over his half-brother, William Longsword, earl of Salisbury, to destroy Philip's shipping in the harbor of Damme ; but when he called upon his barons to prepare for an invasion of France, upon one pretext or another they refused; the northern barons putting themselves squarely on the ground that the king had no right io demand military service out of the kingdom. In the meantime a great council, which was at St. Albans, called to meet at St. Albans in August for the pur-

Jkttn. ^ 1213,

pose of estimating the damages which church property had received during the recent quarrel, provided an opportunity for a free discussion of the condition of the realm, the failure of the king to fulfill his promises of good government, and his numerous invasions of the legal rights of the barons.

John himself was not present at the council, so that the barons apparently discussed their grievances with the utmost freedom. It was no easy matter, however, to answer definitely the question of rights. There was hardly a right which had not been exercised by the barons in the license which had prevailed

108 THE GREAT CHARTER [Jobx

nnder Stephen. There was hardly a right which had not been denied to the barons during the vigorous reign of Henry II. Gteoflfrey Fitz-Peter, the justiciar, cleared the air somewhat when he formally proclaimed the laws of Henry I. as the basis of the good customs which were to be restored, and when three weeks later, at a second meeting of the barons held at St. Paulas in London, the new archbishop, Langton, brought forth the for- gotten charter of Henry I., the demands of the popular party assumed a definite and authoritative form.

On the continent, in the meantime, events had reached a

crisis. The great alliance of John with Otto and Ferrand had

proved a signal failure. The allies were beaten by

jt3wS**i2i<. P^^^^P *^ Bouvines, and only a pitiful remnant of

Otto's knights got away to Germany. John had won some unimportant advantages in Poitou ; but the defeat of his allies compelled him to retire beyond the Loire and make a truce with Philip for five years.

He did not return to England until the autumn. But he had not forgotten the northern barons who had refused to assist him

in his continental wars, and came back with the avowed otstEd- purpose of calling them to an account. The barons,

however, knew their man and were prepared to meet him. Late in November they met in the minster of St. Edmunds under the color of a pilgrimage, and secretly bound themselves before the great altar to compel the king to restore the liberties of the realm and confirm the act by a charter given under his seal; if he refused, they would withdraw their allegiance and appeal to arms.

Soon after Christmas a deputation of the barons laid their propositions before the king. He asked for time and promised

to respond on the first Sunday after Easter. He had, paresfor howover, no idea of submission and set himself to

prepare for resistance. He sought first to detach the bishops from the popular cause, and on the 15th of January issued a charter in which he granted the church freedom from the interference of the crown in "the election of all prelates whatsoever, greater or less." Langton, however, was too wise

1815] THE OHABTEB ACOEFTED 109

and farseeing to be caught by John's blandishments and stoutly refused to accept any terms for the church which did not also include the barons. The king in the meanwhile was swelling the ranks of his foreign mercenaries by enlistments in Brabant and Poitou; he fortified and provisioned his castles; he required his tenants to renew their homage and directed the oath of allegiance to be taken by all freemen throughout England. He also sought to secure the support of the pope by assuming the obligations of a crusader; an act which put him under the special protection of the church.

In March the barons gathered at Stamford, and with a dignity and self-possession worthy of the greatness of their cause, calmly

waited for the expiration of the truce. They then eepu Charter, marched into Northamptonshire and on the 27th of

April lay encamped at Brackley. Here Langton and William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, met them as envoys from the king and asked their demands. In reply they drew up a series of articles, known as the ^* Articles of the Barons,'' and dispatched them to the king. John read the demands and angrily exclaimed: "Why do they not ask for my kingdom? I will never grant such liberties as will make me a slave." When the answer came back, the barons, now two thousand strong and numbering representa- tives of the greatest houses of England, broke camp and marched upon London. John was still surrounded by many of the older barons, men like William Marshal, whose sympathies were with the rising, but who feared the anarchy of civil war and preferred to gain their point in a quieter way by bringing pressure to bear upon the king within the lines of the constitution. The nation, however, was against John, and when on the 24th of May "the Army of Ood and the Holy Church," as the barons styled them- selves, entered London in the midst of the wildest enthusiasm, the king's most trusted followers, even the members of his house- hold, saw that his cause was hopeless, and abandoned him. Canning and unscrupulous as John was, supported only by Flemish mercenaries and a few foreign favorites, he saw that farther resistance would be madness, and when the Articles of the Barons in a revised form were again aubmitt^ \a \&s£l<^\a

110 THE GREAT OHABTEB [jo»w

accepted them and attached the great seal. This historic event took place at Knnnymede, near Windsor, on the 15th of Jane, 1216.

So at last was secured the priceless document, known in dis- tinction from all other charters as the Or eat Charter. The

importance of this famous document can hardly be ^^5S exaggerated. It was "the first great legislative act of

the English nation/' and, supplemented by the later Petition of Right and BUI of Rights^ it constitutes the legal foundation of Anglo-Saxon liberties. In form, it was a grant similar to previous charters of English kings, issued by the favor of the crown to all "our faithful subjects." In theory, it was a restatement of the customary laws of feudal England as they had been recognized by her Norman and Angevin kings. In fact, it was a list of rights and liberties forced upon the king by his sub- jects; and since it defined in legal foi*m the relations of king and people, and imposed upon the subjects the task of deposing him as a sacred duty in case he violated these relations, it virtually asserted the principle that the king was subject to the laws of the realm as well as his meanest vassal.

An analysis of the sixty-three articles of the Charter shows that little had escaped the barons. The church was "to be free"

and have its newly granted rights. The feudal obliga- ^^^ctMf^. tions of the barons were definitely specified, and the

dues which the king might justly demand were care- fully defined and limited. The king might not levy scutage or extraordinary aid without the consent of the common council of the nation. To this council he must summon each of the greater barons individually; the lesser tenants he might summon by a general notification delivered through the sheriff of the county. No freeman could be imprisoned or be made to suffer other penalty, unless he had first been tried and judged by his peers in accordance with the law of the land. Justice, mo];eover, should be neither "sold, nor denied, nor delayed." The barons on their part agreed that the liberties which they as tenants received from the king, they in turn would observe in dealing with their own tenants. Even the villain came in for his share of

1215] MODERATION OF THE CHARTER 111

protection; his agricultural implements, like the stock of the merchant or tradesman, were to be sheltered from the rapacity of the government official.

Such in brief was the famous Charter, — the first attempt to define in a formal way the powers of the crown and the righto of .. . .. ^he people. Its moderation is as remarkable as its

Moderation ,t,,, ,. mi t ^ -»

ofe/ie breadth and comprehensiyeness. The barons had no

wish to weaken the crown; they fully believed that the established customs of the nation were sufficient guarantees of their rights, and these were all that they asked; but they demanded that these customs be observed.

It was much that now at last king and subjects had come to a formal understanding. The customs of England had been for- mulated and the salutary principle established, that mforeLg these customs might not be violated even by the king. By the sixty-first clause of the Charter, the king was made to empower the baronage to elect a standing committee, or council, of twenty-five barons, who were to keep watch upon the king and his officers, and demand instant redress in case any of the provisions were violated.

The immediate conduct of John justified all the suspicions of the barons. Evidently he had not been sincere for a single moment ; as soon as the barons had returned to their 0/ e^Sope* homes, he sent off Pandulf the papal legate post haste to persuade the pope to free him from his oath. The pope at heart was not unfriendly to the cause of English liberties, but he looked upon the struggle solely from the point of view of his interests as overlord, and Pandulf easily persuaded him that the barons, in curtailing the powers of the crown, were seriously harming his interests. Moreover, technically, by feudal law any difficulties between the king and his vassals ought to have been first referred to the overlord for settlement. The pope accordingly granted John the dispensation; threatened the barons with excommunication because they had levied war upon a cru- sader, and finally suspended Langton.

John, in the meanwhile, was busily preparing for war, and by the end of harvest was ready to take the field. He sent a body of

112 THE GBEAT CHARTER [Jow

foreign mercenaries under Falkes de Breaut6 to waste the lands

of the barons, while he himself, ravaging as he advanced, marched

into Scotland to punish the Scot king, Alexander, for

War of John ,. v. . tx i.

and liU supporting his enemies. It was a serious moment for the Charter. The suspension of Langton removed the only man who was able to hold together the many diverse elements of the popular party. The more conservative of the barons, men like Pembroke and Chester, who had left John only at the last moment, were inclined to draw back, while the younger men, the hotheads, were determined to fight the matter out. Thus the war rapidly degenerated into a struggle of factions, in which the popular party continued to disintegrate and John's ranks swelled correspondingly.

The barons who held out were soon in a sad plight; their estates were ruined, their castles destroyed, and their wives Prfiu;e LmOa *^^ children were lying in John's dungeons as hos- ^Smme %e **8^' ^^ xhAr desperation they finally renounced their ^frc'^'y^ allegiance altogether, and invited Louis, the son of

Philip, to come over and assume the English crown. Louis had married John's niece, Blanche of Castile, and by feudal law, in default of John and his male heirs, Louis's right to the English crown through his wife might be recognized. Philip chose to regard the claim as founded upon good law and in spite of the threats of the pope espoused the cause of the barons, and in November hurried off a detachment of 7,000 men to aid them, reinforcing it at times during the winter and spring. John, however, in spite of the French help, continued to make head against his foes, and with the fall of Colchester in March, London remained almost the only place of importance in their hands.

In May, the arrival of Prince Louis gave a new phase to the war. Up to this point John had shown considerable military skill. His energy had been magnificent. The strength 2JJJJ»»^^^ and vigor of his blows had appalled the stoutest. But now he began to display that want of resolution in the presence of great emergency, so characteristic of the man, but a new element in the Angevin character. When he heard of the landing of Prince Louis at Thanet, he at once broke camp

1216] DEATH OF JOHK 118

and retired to Winchester. Louis marched npon London and was received by the people with loud acclamations. From Lon- don he advanced upon Winchester. John's French mercenaries, who constituted his main strength, refused to fight against their king's son, and John could do nothing but waste the country and retire before Louis. Winchester fell, and Louis laid siege to Windsor and Dover. Alexander came from Scotland to do him homage and the northern lords followed his example; then the southern earls began to come in, and finally John's half -brother, William of Salisbury, made his submission.

Ere the summer had passed, however, unmistakable signs of a second reaction began to appear. Hubert de Burgh had suc-

ceeded in holding Dover against every attempt of John, Oct 19, Louis; Windsor also held out. The barons, more-

over, began to doubt the security of their position, should Louis be too successful. Still the fear of John was supe- rior to all other motives and Louis's party continued to hold together. But suddenly in the midst of new successes of the royal party, the whole aspect of the struggle was changed by the removal of John himself, — according to tradition, the result of a surfeit of new cider and green peaches.

CHAPTER Vn

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHARTER EEKBT in., 1216-1265

A great forward step had now been taken by England in securing a basis upon which the relations of crown and people

might be formally worked out. Ideas, heretofore only for the vaguely floating in men's minds, had been crystallized

into the formal terms of a public document; they could never again be lost or forgotten. Yet the Charter was by no means secure. Its provisions, after all, were as yet only the plat- form of a party. Much depended upon John's successor; much

114 THE STBUGGLE FOB THE OHABTER [hknkt m.

more depended upon the clearness with which new leaders should grasp the principles of the Charter, and the courage with which they should uphold them.

Within ten days after the death of John, the barons who had olong to him brought out his eldest son, Henry, and had him Henrv IIL ^^owned at Gloucester. William Marshal, earl of SSJSSt^' Pembroke, was appointed ^^governor of the king and Oet.28,au. the kingdom,*' but the care of the person of the king was committed to Peter des Boches, bishop of Winchester, one of the late king's foreign fayorites, who had been chief justiciar lor a time after the death of Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. Pembroke had refused to join the barons against John, but he was not wedded to John's ways; he saw, moreover, that the only hope of the young king of oyer ruling over his father's kingdom, lay in the aban- donment of the father's policy. To assure the people, therefore, that John's policy had died with him, Pembroke at once reissued the Charter, in a modified form to be sure, but still the Charter. The first year of the new administration was fully occupied by the struggle with Louis. In May, 1217, Pembroke beat the French in an absurd battle at Lincoln, known as '^The Fair of Lincoln," so easy was the victory and so rich the plunder. In August the Fair of Lincoln was eclipsed by a victory off Dover, in which Hubert de Burgh with a small fleet of forty ships com- pletely overwhelmed the French fleet, and by destroy- Lambctn, ing Louis's last chance of getting reinforcements, practically settled the war. Tlie treaty of peace was signed at Lambeth, September 11, 1217. Ten thousand marks were paid to Louis to meet the expenses which he had incurred in undertaking the war, and all parties were restored to the condi- tions which had prevailed at the opening of the year 1215.

Pembroke was now free to address himself to the reorganiza- tion of the kingdom on the basis of the Charter. Accordingly ^^ he again reissued the document as a renewal of his

we of the pledge to the people, and accompanied it by a supple- mentary charter, known as the Charter of the Forests. The Charter of the Forests included the forest regulations of the original Charter, which had been omitted from the first reissue,

181^1S27] HUBERT DE BUBOH 115

and also certain new regnlations which relieved the people of many nardships.

In 1219 Earl William died. His place could not be easily filled, nor did the council attempt to appoint a new "governor.** Hubert de Burgh, the hero of Dover, had been jus- Si'BSnh, ^iciar since 1215, and the chief place in the admin- istration naturally fell to him. He had never been in sympathy with the restrictions of the royal power as they had been set forth in the Charter; but he believed in good government, and threw himself with all the confidence and vigor of a successful soldier into the task of completing the work of Earl William, by stamping out the last embers of baronial insubordination. It is to be noted, however, that the rebellious barons now were not the men who had fought John but were the mercenary adventurers whom he had brought into the country, many of whom still held the fortresses which John had committed to their keeping.

As a preliminary step, at Whitsuntide of the year 1220, Hubert, with the support of Langton, had Henry recrowned at BubertM- Westminster amid great pomp and splendor. It was JJg»^5g*^J'^ to be the signal that the king had been restored to full '^^ possession of the royal dignity. Armed with a bull

from the pope, Hubert then proceeded against the barons who refused to surrender their castles. At first the barons talked of resistance and actually gathered in force at Leicester. But the determined attitude of Hubert, supported by all the authority of Langton, who had been restored to his former office, effectually over- awed the malcontents. The great Falkes de Breaut^, however, who had been John's chief of mercenaries, continued to defy the justiciar until 1224, when Hubert besieged and took his powerful castle of Bedford and hanged Falkes' brother William and some eighty men from its walls. Such vigorous measures thoroughly cowed even de Breaute and he was glad to leave the country.

Hubert continued to rule the kingdom with vigor and success until 1227, when Henry, who had entered upon his twenty- first year, declared his purpose of assuming the government himself. In private life the young king was clean and upright, without his father's personal vrickedness; but unfortunately he was

116 THE STRUGGLE FOB THE CHABTER [hboit ID.

poBseBsed with an exaggerated estimate of his own abilities as an executive, always coupled with a slavish deference to the papacy.

He was, moreover, easily led by the favorite of the enmesofage, houT and inclined, like most weak natures in high

positions, to be suspicious of the influence of strong men. Hubert continued to act as justiciar; but the king was incapable of appreciating his sterling worth, or the value of his past services. In 1232 the minister was driven from the council, overwhelmed by a mass of unfounded charges, and his lands were taken from him. He was the last of the great justiciars. Inferior men succeeded him, the political functions of the office passed to the chancellor, and in the next reign the office itself was virtually abolished by the breakmg up of the Curia into three distinct and separate courts.

After the fall of Hubert, for a time Henry allowed Peter des Boches to exert the supreme influence in the council, putting

his foreign friends, adventurers mostly, into the lucra- t^orlLu^ tive offices to the exclusion of the English bom. The

protests of the barons, however, backed by a threat of civil war, flnally compelled the king to dismiss Peter and send his friends home.

Henry, however, had no idea of humoring his troublesome barons by inviting any of them to a place in his council. If they p^mmuiz would uot Ict him appoint ministers to pletlse himself, emmentof he would havo no ministers at all, and so for a number

of years Henry assumed the whole responsibility of the administration, carrying on the government through a body of hired clerks, or secretaries. The experiment was a dismal failure from the first; yet Henry was as obstinate as he was extravagant, and blind to his own incompetence, he kept on year after year, disgusting his people by his shortcomings and rolling up a mass of grievances which certainly would have appalled a wiser head. The barons continued to grant scutages, aids, carucage, or tax on movables as Henry demanded. But their generosity found little encouragement in the financiering of the king, whose debts soon exceeded four times his annual income. The barons insisted with each grant that the king confirm the Charters and promise redress

1258] THB PROVISIONS OF OXFORD 117

and reforms; and Henry like all spendthrifts was always ready to promise when he needed money, only to forget again as soon as the money was in his hands.

Like the barons, the clergy also were snbjected to numerous and heavy exactions, but they were less able to protect themselves.

The popes had taken the homage of John in serious ^dSfgyf earnest and had not hesitated to tax the vassal king^-

dom of England in order to meet the expense which they were incurring by the long continued struggle with the Hohenstaufen. The English barons had refused to pay more than the thousand marks stipulated by John, but the clergy were helpless and continued to pay the annates^ or first fruits^ as they were demanded. The pope, moreover, not satisfied with direct taxation had assumed the right of naming ^^provisors," in order to reward his*ltalian servants by securing for them appointments to English livings in advance of vacancies. At last these exactions became so burdensome that even the laity complained of the impoverishment of the kingdom.

In 1258 the personal administration of Henry reached a crisis. He had foolishly allowed the pope not only to persuade him to

accept the disputed Sicilian crown for his second son, tifiMof Edmund, but also, ostensibly in Henry's interests, to

wage war in the harassed Italian kingdom, by which his indebtedness to the Holy See had been rolled up to the enormous sum of 140,000 marks. The demand of the pope for payment forced Henry to throw himself upon his barons, who responded by virtually taking the government out of the king's hands altogether, appointing a justiciar, treasurer, and chancellor, and further drawing up a constitution known as the Provisions of Oxford. By these Provisions the government was made respon- sible to a permanent council, or committee, of the more influential of the barons. Four discreet knights, also, were appointed in each shire to report to the council upon the conduct of the sheriffs. The sheriffs were to be appointed for one year, and their SKXK>unt8 were to bo strictly audited. A direct blow was aimed at the foreign friends of the king, in that all castles wore to be put At once into the hands of native Englishmen.

118 THE STBUGGLE FOB THE CHARTEB [hxkbt m.

The Provisions were accepted by the king; the several com- mittees were appointed and the members bound by an elaborate The new series of oaths to perform their respective duties. gJJJJg^*^ The king also swore to support the Provisions. A ^*** flurry was caused for a moment by the conduct of

' Henry's half-brothers, the Lusignans, who from the castle of Winchester defied the authority of the government. After a two weeks' siege, however, they were compelled to capitulate on July 5, and were expelled from the kingdom, leaving the most of their wealth behind them. After their departure, Edward, Henry's eldest son, also accepted the Provisions, and the new government was fairly launched.

The two men who thus far had led the barons were Richard of Glare, earl of Gloucester, and Simon de Montfort, earl of licicester. Richard of Clare was **by birth, property, gJ'^JJ^ wid descent the natural head of the English baron- age." He was also a man of great energy and strength, but his political sympathies were narrow and confined him to the interests of his class. A very different man was Earl Simon. He came from an ancient Norman family and was the second son of that Simon de Montfort who had lost his life under the walls of Toulouse in the Albigensian Crusade. But although not an Englishman, Simon had risen to the full signifi- cance of the movement for the political reorganization of the kingdom.

The year 1259 opened auspiciously enough for the new admin- istration. After the expulsion of the foreigners Henry's personal influence was feeble. His son Edward had a strong the party of following among the lesser barons, but they were all with Simon and the cause of reform. Richard of Corn- wall, the king's brother, who had been elected King of the Romans in 1257 and had been spending the last two years abroad in the mad quest for imperial honors, returned in January, but was compelled to swear to support the Provisions. In times past, at great crises in the nation's history, the archbishop of Canterbury had generally played a most important r61e and the support of his powerful influence was more to be desired than the

1859] THB PBOYISIONS OF WESTMINSTER 119

support of an army. The present incumbent, however, was Boniface of Savoy, the queen's uncle, who was not only one of the very foreigners whom the barons were determined to keep out of the kingdom, but had made himself specially obnoxious by his brutal violence. There was no one, therefore, to rally a king's party. Yet the king was not long without friends. He found them, moreover, where he had least expected, among the very barons who had driven away his kinsmen and seized control of his government. Gloucester and Leicester were thoroughly incom- patible both in views and in temperament. Gloucester was satisfied, now that the foreigners had been expelled, and had no desire to see the reform carried further. Leicester, apparently, did not wish to stop until remedies had been introduced which should make such abuses of power as had disgraced the reigns of John and Henry henceforth impossible. Gloucester had no sympathy with the demands of the inferior barons, who were by no means pleased with the Provisions which had virtually excluded them from a share in the government. Simon, however, was evidently not satisfied with simply exalting the powers of a few great barons at the expense of the crown; he contended not for the privileges of his class but to secure good government for the nation.

Li February the matter came to an open quarrel between Oloncester and Simon; but Simon apparently won, for on the The ProH- ^^^^ ^^ March the king published an ordinance by Watminater ^^^^^ ^^^ barons of the parliament undertook **to Ott,m9, observe towards their dependents all the engagements which the king had undertaken to observe towards his vassals." This pledge, however, was evidently not definite enough to satisfy the great body of knights, who, led by Prince Edward himself, demanded of the council that some specific reforms promised at Oxford be forthcoming. There were ominous threats of counter- revolution in the air, and the oligarchy in control of the govern- ment could only submit. In October, therefore, they published a second or supplementary set of Provisions, known as the Provisions of Westminster^ which, while not altogether eatisfac* toiy, served to allay the disquiet for a time.

120 THE STRUGGLE POB THE OHABTEB [HnntT la

It 18 not necessary to trace the further history of the govern- ment of the harons in detail. They succeeded in bringing to a close a Welsh war which had "femouldered through the merAof the greater part of Henry's personal reign. They with- drew England from all share in the unfortunate Sicilian affair. They also succeeded in settling by a definite treaty the long-standing quarrel of England and France over the lost Angevin dominions, in which the council renounced all claims of the English king upon Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, Bnrdeaiac, and Poitou; the French king conceded Bordeaux,

1269*

Bayonne, and Gascony, with the bishoprics of Lim- oges, Cahors, and Perigord, all to be held by the king of England as fiefs of the king of France. The domestic administration of the council seems to have been likewise successful. As prescribed by the Provisions, the council held three full meetings, "parlia- ments," each year; the four knights from each county regularly reported on the conduct of the sheriffs, and the courts instead of being a source of extortion, became again the guardians of law- abiding subjects.

So matters continued until 1262 when the earl of Gloucester died, and the young earl, also a Richard of Clare, throw himself ^ ^ enthusiastically into the support of the popular party.

Tn/6 (tDDTOClCn x x jl »/

of Civil war. The estrangement of Leicester and the great barons was by no means healed; they had come, moreover, to regard the Provisions with indifference and probably would not have objected to entrusting the king with power again, if he had shown any disposition to keep his foreign friends out of the country. For more than they distrusted the king, the barons now distrusted the liberal views of Simon which were steadily gaining in the towns and the counties. As the year 1263 opened, it was evident that the country was drifting rapidly into civil warj* The king made no secret of his purpose of overthrowing the Provi- sions; while the people on the other hand were showing their disapproval of the king's course by rioting in the north and west. Edward had for some time begun to mistrust, if not the motives, at least the wisdom of the leader of the popular party, and when the new earl of Gloucester refused to swear allegiance

1264] THE 1CI8E OF AlCIBKS 121

to him as heir to the throne, he regarded it as cause of open breach with the party. Simon, moreover, had made an alliance with Edward's old enemy of Wales, Llewelyn, who had begun to attack the king's partisans in the west. The people of London unfortunately had also won the enmity of Edward by an utterly inexcusable insnlt to his mother, whom they hated as one of the detested foreigners. Bichard of Cornwall, who had not yet committed himself to either party, for the moment managed to stave off the war by persuading the leaders to lay their quarrel

before Louis of France for arbitration. Louis, how- Amiewir ever, knew little of the conditions which existed in

England, and his decision, the Mise of Amiens^ was singularly unjust and one-sided. He declared that the Provisions of Oxford and all engagements connected with them were null and void; that Henry might appoint his own council and employ foreigners if he would, but that previous charters ought to be observed.

The discontented leaders were not satisfied, and Simon announced that he proposed to adhere to the Provisions of Oxford.

Only a few of the great barons went with him, but the tht^'MiMof citizens of the large towns, the native clergy, the

universities, and the great body of the people, hailed his declaration with unfeigned enthusiasm.

The rejection of the Mise of Amiens was the signal for the beginning of the so-called "Barons' War." At first the royal

forces won marked success in the midland counties. the**Barons' Then the war drifted south, and finally in the first

Wot **22S^

week of May, 1264, the two armies faced each other at Lewes. The bishops of London and Worcester came to the king with an offer of 50,000 marks if he would confirm the Pro- visions of Oxford. His answer was a defiance, and a challenge to do their worst. The next morning Earl Simon, reinforced by a body of Londoners, led his army to the attack. Simon, good Lewes. May ^orman that he was, had spent the night in prayer, i4,i»6i, urging others to do the same, and his spirit had found a ready response among soldiers who felt that like the men of 1215 they too had a right to call themselves "The

123 THE BTBUGGLE FOB THE OHARTEB [Hsm m.

Army of God and the Holy Church." The battle went against the king, owing largely to the eagerness of Edward, who early in the action had routed a band of Londoners and led his men-at-arms too far in the pursuit. He returned to the field to find the battle lost, and Henry and Bichard of Cornwall prisoners. The next day, the king formally agreed to the Mise of Lewes^ in which he bound himself to submit the points at issue to a new board of arbitration ; to act solely on the advice of his coun- sellors **in administering justice and choosing ministers"; to observe the Charters and to live at moderate expense; to give as hostages Edward, and Henry, the son of Eichard of Cornwall, and to indemnify the earls of Leicester and Gloucester for their Bacrifices in the war.

Simon himself was now apparently ready to abandon the cum- bersome arrangement devised at Oxford ; and a month later, June 22, a great council or "parliament" to which were Uanofm^ added four knights from each shire, was summoned to ratify a new scheme of government. By this plan three electors were to be chosen by the parliament, and these in turn were to name a permanent body of nine councillors. Of the nine, three were to be in constant attendance, and only by thoir advice could the king act. They were to nominate the ministers of the crown and the wardens of the castles, and their authority was to continue until the new board of arbitration provided by the Mise of Lewes had settled the points at issue. The plan was adopted, and Simon was named as one of the three electors ; with him were associated the earl of Gloucester and Stephen Berksted, the bishop of Chichester. These three men for the next year were the real governors of England.

Simon was fully aware of the insecurity of his position, and had little confidence in the proposed arbitration. He seized the ^^ royal castles, therefore, and placed them in the hands

parties after of his owu men. He also sought to secure the country by appointing in each shire so called * 'guardians of the peace.'* The royal partisans on the Welsh border, led by the border lord, Roger Mortimer, were still strong and defiant and were preparing for the renewal of war; Queen Eleanor and the

1265] EVESHAM 123

English refugees, also, were raising a powerful force in France; the pope too had entered the lists and was using all his influence to detach the bishops from the support of Simon, and the legate stood ready to hurl his anathemas at the new government.

Simon, nevertheless, bravely addressed himself to the task of inaugurating the new order, and on the 20th of January, 1265, his famous parliament came together at London. Of the maX^^^s. P^^^ barons of the kingdom only five earls, including Simon and Gloucester, and eighteen barons had been summoned. The clergy, however, were generally represented. The shires, also, had been instructed through the sheriffs to elect in each shire court ''four legal and discreet knights to attend the king in parliament at London.'' As an afterthought, appar- ently, a similar summons bad been sent to such cities and towns individually as were known to be friendly to Simon, urging the attendance of two deputies from each. As a matter of fact, the list included all the most important cities of England. The parliament as thus composed sat until late in March. It had been summoned to complete the arrangements entered into at Lewes. The king swore to maintain the new form of government during his lifetime, and published ''a statement of the circum- stances and terms of pacification." Those who had lately borne arms against the king took the oath of fealty. Edward's county of Chester because of its military importance was transferred to Simon, for which Edward was to receive other lands in compen- sation. The Charters, also, were confirmed and declared once more established. Then the famous parliament of Earl Simon broke up. In a few months its acts were swept away in the counter revolution which culminated at Evesham, but a new suggestion, a hint at least, had been given of the important part yet to be performed by the people in the government of England.

Simon ^was now to pay the penalty of the successful revolu- tionist. He had been in fact too successful, for if his success had Bvesham and ^^^ turned his own head, it had turned the heads of his Sfm^ifuij. ^^^ ^^^^' Their insolence angered Gloucester; a per- ^1286, sonal quarrel with Earl Simon followed, in which

Gloucester intimated that Earl Simon himself was one of tha

124 THE OHABTBB OONFIRICED [hxxbtUL

hated foreigners who had been forbidden by the Proyisions of Oxford to share in the goyernment of England; and when on the 28th of May, Edward, who since the meeting of parliament had been retained in a sort of honorable captivity at Hereford, rode away to join Mortimer on the Welsh border, Gloucester threw off all further pretense of acting with Simon and gathered his tenants for war. The moment was well chosen. Earl Simon had taken the king and marched into Wales, where the king's half-brother, William of Valence, was seeking to rally a party among his tenants of Pembroke. Edward and the earl of Glouces- ter, therefore, by seizing the town of Gloucester, easily secured control of the Severn and by a series of brilliant manoeuvers finally succeeded in intercepting Simon at Evesham and thus prevented the junction of his army with his son who was advancing from Kenilworth. When Simon saw the troops of Edward moving upon him, the men marching in long and regular ranks, he read his fate at once ; his handful of knights, supported only by an unorganized mob of Welsh peasantry, could never stand before such disciplined troops. "Let us commend our souls to God," he cried to the brave men who stood by his side, "for our bodies are the foe's." The Welsh gave way at the first shock. The group of knights about the earl, among whom was Hugh le Despenser, the justiciar, fought till the last man was down. Still Simon held off his swarming foes, until a foul blow dealt from behind felled him to the earth, and with the cry, "It is God's grace," the old hero yielded up his spirit.

^

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHABTEB CONFIBHED

HENRY in., nes-rm EDWARD /., tam-asn

Lewes was now undone; all that had been gained by two generations of strife apparently had been swept away ; the king oould now defy the Charter, squander the treasure of his subjects.

DICTUM OF KBNILWORTH 125

and rale as he listed. This, to all appearance, was Henry's inter- pretation of the overthrow of Simon, and he at once set about punishing those who had recently opposed him; the uf^ve^Sm, ®8*^*^8 of nearly one-half the gentry of England were marked for forfeiture and confiscation; and the hungry fayorites of the king, without waiting for process of law, began at once to take possession.

It was ii^possible, however, for the king's party to pursue this mad career of reactionary vengeance long without a challenge. ^ The movement for popular rights had stirred the peo- oathering pie too profoundly to be abandoned after one reverse. A powerful garrison still held out at Kenilworth in the interests of the barons, while the younger Simon retired into the fastnesses of the Fen Country on the lower Trent, and there rallied to his side the ''disinherited," as the victims of the forfei- tures styled themselves. The people were restless and defiant, breaking out at times in open violence. Bands of outlaws, also, terrorized the counties far and near and £he government appar- ently was too weak to deal with them.

The outlook, therefore, was not reassuring. Such leaders as Edward and Gloucester who had once been of the popular party and in their hearts still sympathized with some KmUworth, of the aims of Simon, were convinced that the kine:- dom could be saved only by conciliation; the sweeping decree of disinheritance must be recalled, or at least so modified that those who submitted might have the opportanity of redeem- ing their lands by the payment of a fine ; the king also must restore the Charters as a guarantee of good government to the people. These measures were forced upon Henry at a parliament summoned the following summer under the walls of Kenilworth, and were published, October 31, 1266, in the famous Dictum of Kenilworth. In November Kenilworth capitulated. It was not, however, until the next year, when the earl of Gloucester sud- denly appeared in London and took possession of the city as a pledge for the fulfillment of the king's promises, that the obtuse mind of Henry fully realized that it was no longer possible to continue the old methods, and th<kt tk^ \^^^

126 THE OHABTEB COKFIBHED [eowabdL

order was final. In Noyember a parliament met at Marlborough and proceeded to put the finishing touches to what was virtually a revolution, by formally adopting the Provisions of Westminster of 1259, although the appointment of all officers of state was carefully reserved for the crowa. Thus the great cause for which Simon had laid down his life after all was not lost. The Charters were saved, and the principles for which Simon had fought were again recognized as a part of the fundamental law of England.

Quiet was now so completely restored that Edward, to whose wisdom and firmness this happy outcome was largely due, thought it safe to leave the kingdom and join with Louis IX. Cru8ade, of France in the ill-fated seventh and last of the cru- sades. He left England in 1270 ; reached Tunis just after the death of Louis ; then went to Acre where he stayed some months but accomplished nothing of importance. In 1272 he set out upon his return and in Sicily heard of his father^s death.

At the time Edward was thirty-three years old. He was already a veteran in war and in administration. He had profited much by the mistakes of his father ; nor had he been E^oSrir^ altogether void of sympathy with the visions of Earl Simon. Yet he possessed what Simon had not, a prac- tical, common sense way of adapting his plans to facts as he found them. His ambition was to restore the crown to its ancient strength and dignity; yet he saw that he could not do this with- out the cordial support of a united people. Here in a word is the policy of Edward's reign.

The first serious difficulty which faced the new king was the long-standing quarrel of the Welsh with England. The Welsh princes had made a formal submission to William the Wales to ^ Conqueror, but they had never been brought under the actual rule of English kings. William's successors had from time to time invaded the country in order to enforce the obligations of the Welsh lords, but they had never met with more than temporary success. Secure in their mountain fastnesses, the Welsh chieftains had continued to raid English territory as pique or lust for plunder dictated; and English kings in order to protect the western shires had been compelled to establish on the

1384-1801] EDWABD AND ENGLISH LAW 127

border a number of military lords with almost sovereign powers. These were the so-called marcher barons, whose turbulent inde- pendence became in time as great a terror to the border lands as the chronic hostility of the Welsh.

These unsatisfactory conditions had been specially emphasized daring the recent struggles, in which the Welsh lords had proved

themselves ever ready to encourage and assist rebellion S^^cUea. ^^ England; and Edward most naturally as his first

duty accepted the task of reducing Wales to order. He then proceeded to introduce the English system of shire administration and to enforce English laws. The permanence of the conquest was further assured by settling colonies of English- men in the towns and by building castles, such as Conway and Carnarvon, the ruins of which still remain, silent testimonies to the thoroughness of Edward's work. It was Edward's policy, also, to retain the country as a principality, distinct from Eng- land; nor was it incorporated in the kingdom or allowed to send representatives regularly to the national parliaments until the reign of Henry VIII. In 1301 Edward gave the title of Prince of Wales to his eldest living son, Edward, who had been bom at Carnarvon in 1284.

The subjection of the rude courts of Wales to the English system was only a part of a greater work which Edward had early

set himself to accomplish. The thirteenth century JS^^^^ was for Europe distinctively a legal age^ The great

law schools of Bologna and other Italian cities had for a century been preparing the way for a legal renaissance by creat- ing and extending an interest in the systematic and scientific study of the Boman Law. Edward was in full sympathy with

this legal renaissance, and applied himself to the work ^SSihSw, ^' nnifying and systematizing the irregular growths

of centuries of feudal custom, with such energy and farsighted wisdom, as to win the title of the English Justinian.'* From his reign 'Hhe Statutes of the Bealm" continue in unbro- ken series.

Of the statutes of Edward some are worthy of special notice M way-marks in the social progress of England* AaiiQtk.% ^SckSRd^

138 THE OHARTEB CONFIRMED [edwau> L

was the &mons Statute de Religiosis^ issued iu 1279, which pro- hibited gifts of land to the chnrch in mortmain^ a form by which

tenants had been accustomed to transfer their lands

to some religious corporation and thus deprive the overlord of his rights. The law was designed not to check the growing power of the church as much as to protect the overlord from the excessive piety of his tenants, sometimes simulated to disguise a deliberate purpose of fraud. Another statute, not less important in protecting the rights of the over- lord, was the Quia EmptoreSy first issued in 1276, and again in

1290; an act intended to prevent the abuse of the imptoreB, Principle of subinfeudation. By this statute the new

tenant escaped from the lordship of the last grantor and became the vassal of the original lord. This statute it was supposed would benefit particularly the great barons, who strongly supported it in the parliament. Its more conspicuous effects, however, were greatly to increase the number of tenants in chief, and thus, by breaking dpwn the hierarchical gradations of feudalism, hasten the time when all should stand in the same relation to the king. An even more important act appeared at

Winchester in 1285, which revived some of the older flf^^j^^r. iiistitutions of the Anglo-Saxon period that during

the two centuries of feudalism had been allowed largely to fall into decay. It regulated the action of the hundred, revived the hue and cry, reimposed the duties of watch and ward, and reSnacted the obligation of the fyrd which Henry II. had once reorganized in the Assize of Arms. By this act every man was bound to aid in the pursuit of criminals when the hue and cry was raised, and to hold himself in readiness to serve the king under arms in case of invasion or rebellion; each hundred, also, was to be responsible for the crimes committed within its limits, and every walled town was to close its gates at sunset and com- pel every stranger to give an account of himself before the magis* trates.

Like the first Plantagenet also, Edward saw that the way to bring the crown into touch with the nation was through a more perfect organization of the royal courts. lie completed the

THE BOYAL BEYBNUES 129

work which had been begun as early as the time of Henry I. by abolishing the office of the common president of the three great Judieiai courts of the realm and placing over each court its own ^j^JSHStnL^ justiciar. He also prepared the way for the develop- The courts, mout of the later Court of Equity by referring cases in equity to the special care of the chancellor. He also reformed the existing courts of the kingdom, attacking unsparingly the abuses which had sprung up during his father's reign by reason of which the judicial circuits had become hated and feared by the people.

It was the misfortnne of Edward to find the throne encum- bered with debt, from which he was never able entirely to extricate

himself. He was by no means extravagant like his ^^^Jl^ father, but his plans for the monarchy required more

money than could be raised by the old methods. The crown domains, moreover, had been greatly reduced by the follies of John and Henry. The incomes from feudal dues, also, had declined with feudalism. Scutages and similar levies were not worth the trouble which it cost to collect them. The courts returned their fines to the royal treasury, but this was not a revenue which could be wisely developed. In his last year Henry II. had instituted a tax on personal property; and although as first introduced it was designed only to secure money for the crusade, the Saladin Tithe, it had since become the most common form of taxation. It depended on a parliamentary grant and varied from a thirtieth to a seventh. But such relief could be only temporary, [and parliaments were loath to repeat it too frequently. Edward, therefore, was obliged to search for still other sources of revenue in order to secure a permanent and steady income. He found the answer to his quest in the possi- bilities offered by the rapidly developing commerce of England, especially by the wool trade of which England virtually enjoyed the monopoly. England since the close of the barons' war had been comparatively free from private warfare and quite removed from the possibility of invasion. She had brought her rural interests to a high state of prosperity and had become the great wool-growing country of Europe. The old way of taku\% %»

180 THE OHABTEB CONFIRMED [sdwaw L

portion of the goods going in or out of the country was no longer satisfactory to king or merchants, and accordingly in 1275 a

parliament at Westminster granted to the crown the Ci^liSn^s. ^8^^ ^' levying an export duty upon wools, skins, and

leather, the so-called Oreat Custom^ in return for a renunciation hy the king of his ancient right of levying upon all goods entering or leaving the kingdom. This was the legal begin- ning of the English customs-revenue. The king still continued

from time to time to use the right of prise in regard MereaUnia, to other commodities. But hy the Carta Mercatoria

of 1303, customs on wine, cloth, and other articles of merchandise were formally recognized and regulated. By the time of Edward III. these had become a regular part of the ordi- nary revenue. Another resort of Edward for restor- ^g^jj^ ing his treasury was known as Distraint of Knighthood.

In the summer of 1278 he issued a writ compelling every freeholder who possessed an estate of £20 a year to assume the obligations of a knight, or to pay what amounted to a heavy fine. In 1282 all persons possessing an estate of £20 a year were ordered to provide themselves with horse and armor.

In these schemes for raising money, the Jews also did not escape the attention of the royal financier. From the time of the

Conquest they had occupied a singular place in Eng- andthe land. In the age of the crusades it is not strange

that they were hated by a thoughtless populace, " The real source of hostility, however, was perhaps the fact that the Jews held virtually the monopoly of the banking business of Europe. The Jew, however, always had a strong protector in the king, who needed him for his money's sake, since a large share of the Jew's profits was sure to come ultimately into the royal treasury as blackmail levied under the guise of protection. Edward shared in the popular antipathy and at first tried restric- tion; he would not allow the Jews to hold real property; he compelled them also to wear a distinctive dress, which greatly increased the grievous burden of their lot by making the Jew always a marked man in the streets, where the hoodlum element, hj no means a pecaliarity of the modern city, was always ready to

1906] THE MODEL PABLIAICBNT 181

take the Jew's distinctive garb as a challenge. Even these annoyances, however, did not satisfy the popular clamor, and in 1290, Edward expelled this much abused people from the country altogether. A grateful parliament granted him a tax of a fifteenth. The great banking houses of Italy were already com- ing into promihence and from this time the money business of England fell largely into their hands.

The reforms of Edward, thus far, were reforms which any absolute monarch who was bent upon administering- his trust

upon rational principles might have instituted; but vroiiSn, sooner or later the great underlying thought of the

Charter, the right of the nation not only to fair treat- ment by the government bat to a fair share in the government, must force itself upon Edward.

In the later years of Edward's reign, the recognition of this important principle was forced upon the king by the burdens

which new conditions had imposed upon his adminis- Pariiament tration. The old Welsh question had been replaced

of 1296%

by an even more serious Scottish question, and the long war had begun which was Edward's reward for interfering in a Scottish dynastic quarrel. The Scots, moreover, had found eager allies in the French, who had their own perpetual quarrel on with their rivals across the Channel, and Philip IV. 's fleets were threatening the English coasts. The king was beset on all sides. In his need he appealed to the common interest of the nation. "It is a most just law," he declared, "that what con- cerns all should be approved by all, and that common dangers should be met by measures provided in common." Accordingly, in 1295 he not only summoned the great charchmen as hereto- fore, but also directed that there be sent one proctor from the chapter of each cathedral, and two proctors from the clergy of each diocese. In the same manner he summoned the great barons as heretofore, but directed also that two knights be sent from each shire and that two citizens be sent from each city or borough. For the first time all the different elements of the nation repre* sented by the free subjects of the king, met together in a national oouncU. It is interesting to note that the results txull^ \^%\2&!^

183 THE OHARTEB CONFIRMED [bdwabd L

the confidence of the king. The First Estate, the clergy, yoted a tenth of their moyables; the Second Estate, composed of the great barons and knights, an eleventh; while the representatives of the towns outdid them all in loyalty by voting a seventh. Because of its completeness this parliament of Edward was lon^ known as Tlie Model Parliament.

Edward's relations to the church mark as complete a depar- ture from the policy of his father as his relations to the national • council. He was slow, however, to break with the uSt'l&Su^ papacy. He needed the support of the clergy, and the popes generally were not averse to the heavy grants which Edward continued to demand. But in 1296 Boniface VIII. by the bull Clericis Laicos forbade the clergy to pay any taxes to the temporal authority. The measure was primarily aimed at Philip IV. of France; but it affected every state of Europe and fairly opened the question of the place of the church in the new national systems. Archbishop Winchelsey supported the papal pretension in England, and when in 1296 a parliament, modeled on that of the preceding year, was called at Bury St. Edmunds, the clergy under the archbishop's leadership refused to make a contribution and presented the pope'b bull in defense. Edward's reply was characteristic of the man. He did not threaten like John to put out the eyes, or slit the noses of disobedient church- men; he simply applied their own doctrine. If they would not contribute to the support of the government, they should have no rights in the king's courts. The sentence amoanted to a decree of outlawry. Edward followed up this sentence of outlawry with the further threat, that unless the clergy yielded before Easter, he would himself confiscate their lands, and the clergy knew the king too well to hope for one moment that his threat would not be carried out. Winchelsey personally refused to yield and sacrificed his lay estates, but he was wise enough to advise his clergy to make the best terms they could individually.

The new struggle with France had reopened the old question

of service on the continent. The French king had naturally

selected Gascony as the first object of attack, and Edward pro-

jDOssad to send his earls to defend Gascony while he in person led

1297] BDWABD AND THB BAROKS 133

another ezjiedition to Flanders. The barons, however, felt little interest in Oascony, and in a gathering in 1297 led by Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, and Hnmfrey de Bohnn, earl JKtoord and of Hereford, fiatly refused to accompany the king. Hot words were exchanged and the assembly broke up in confusion.

The king, however, was in no mind to yield, or renounce his proposed expedition, and in order to raise the funds which the parliament had failed to grant, he seized the wool of the mer- chants and made requisition* upon the shires on the basis of former grants. He also issued orders for all who held lands of £20 a year or upwards to meet in London under arms on July 7. Bigod and Bohun refused to move; but the king, by promising to confirm the Charters, persuaded the leaders, who had come together for the military levy, to consent to a grant of one-eighth of the movables of the barons and knights, and one-fifth of the towns. The action was altogether too much in the spirit of Edward's predecessors, and Bigod and Bohun at once sent to Edward a formal protest in the name of *Uhe whole community of the land,'' and demanded that the Great Charter and the Char- ter of the Forests be confirmed, and pointedly hinted that with Scotland hostile it would be wise for the king to stay at home.

The document reached Edward when he was on the point of embarking for the war. Such outspoken words from subjects oonjirmatum ^*^ ^^^ common enough in his father's day, but had SrM^ocfl^ ^^^ ^®^ heard before in Edward's reign. His own '^^ sense of justice told him that he had gone too far, and

his better wisdom would not allow him to come to an open rup- ture with his barons. Tet he was not ready to submit, or give up his plan of invading France. He avoided a direct answer, therefore, on the plea that he could not act without his council, and that it was impossible then to bring them together. The two earls, however, were not to be put off by evasion, and when the departure of the king assured them that their petition was to be ignored, they at once marched to London and forbade the roya^ ofScers to collect the eighth, which had been granted at the Lon- don levy, and, further, protested against the seizure of the m<y^V

lU THE CHARTER OONFIRKED [edwakdl

£dwa d had left his son with his oonncillors to do the best they could in quieting the barons. But to do this they found that they must summon a regnlar parliament and secure the aid in a lawful manner. The parliament, however, came together, not to grant tho aid, but to insist upon the promised confirmation of the Charters. The original taxing clause, which had been omitted from William Marshal's reissue of the Great Charter in 1216, had never been formally restored, although the crown had since generally recognized the principle. The earls, therefore, insisted upon the introduction of several new clauses, by which they recog- nized the ordinary aids fixed by ancient feudal custom, but demanded that the king should again pledge himself not to claim as a right, aids which the people had granted of their own will, and that such aids should be taken only by the '^common consent of the realm." The king had also taken advantage of the vast increase in the wool trade to levy a customs-duty — the maltdte^ — which amounted to a virtual confiscation of a large part of the profits of the trade. The earls insisted that the king should renounce the malt6te and should pledge himself and his heirs not again ^Ho take any such thing, or any other, without the com- mon consent and good will of the commonalty of th^ realm." The Oreat Custom of 1275, however, was to bo retained. In this form the Charters were confirmed by the council in the name of the absent king, and then sent to him at Ghent to be ratified.

The confirmation of the Charters completed the work which Langton and the barons had begun at Kunnymede. What had

been ^'recognized as a usage, now became a matter of Ltmgttm written right." Henceforth, no general tax could be

legally taken from the nation without the consent of its representatives. The constitutional importance of this princi- ple can not be overestimated. It made the king dependent for his power upon the good will of his people. It made it impossible for an evil king who once lost the sympathy of the nation, to carry out his designs by legal methods. It furnished the vantage ground from which the nation, in working out the problem of constitutional government, might take the next great upward step by estab- lishing the responsibility of the king's ministers to the parliament.

SPECIAL TOPICS 135

SPECIAL TOPICS

TBBABMAinnrr or William: Oman, History of the Art of War in the MiddU A(fe$, p. 166; Freeman. N. O.. Ill, pp. 378-38«.

The English before Hasttngb: WlUiam of Malmesbnry, A.D. 1066; Freeman, JV: a, UI, pp. 463, 464.

TBB Battle or Hastings: Freeman, y. C, III, pp. 459-581; Cf. Round, Femdai England^ pp. 838-806; Oman, Art of War, pp. 150-166.

Tbm Coronation or Williaji: Anglo-Saxon Chronicis, A.D. 1066; Freeman, N. O., lU. pp. 681-663.

The Norman Reduction of England: Orderlcus Vltalis, Bk. IV, c. 11. Terry, Hiitory of England, pp. 150-166; Ramsay, Foundations of England^ II, pp. 38-80; Freeman, N. CC, IV, p. 267, seq.

Frankpledge: Stubbs, Constitutional JTistory of England, I, p. 94, seq.; Pollock and Maltlaud, History of English Law, 2d ed., Vol I, pp. 568-571.

Curia Regis: Stubbs, Select Charters, pp. 140-156, 2258-262, 368; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History, pp 9, 14-27, 28-33, 54; Stnbbs, C'. H., 1, pp. 406, 418, seq., 624, seq., 639, seq.; Pollock and Maitland. I, pp. 40-42, 83, 84, 107* 110, 153-160, 169. 184, 190-201, 534; Taswell-Langmead, English ConstUiUional HUtary^ 6th ed.. Chap. V.

WTTENAGEMOT, MAGNTM CONCILinM, AND PARLIAMENT: StUbbS, S. C, pi>. 276, 287,

876, 887, 401, 481, 497; Adams an^'. Stephens, pp. 40, 5.V68, 82. 88; Wakeman and HassaU, Constitutional Essays, pp. 158-223; Stubbs, C. i/., I, pp. 138-167, 291, 386. seq., 604, seq.; TasweU-LaugmeaU, 5th ed., pp. 188-217.

Taxation under Norman and Angetin Kingr: Stubbs, 8. C, pp. 86, 160, 888.298 (Great Charter, c. 12), 352, 864, 417, 497; Adams and Stephens, pp. 8. 8, 87, 85, 44. 62, 66, 88; Lee, Source Book, pp. 185 (cs. 6 and 6;, 149; Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 808, 827, 648, 618> 629, Vol. II, p. 668.

Population of England at Time of Conquest: Ramsay, I, pp. 611, 618.

B Domesday Sukvky: Lee, Source Book, pp. 119-121; Adams and Stephens, x>. 848; Ramsay, I, p. 571, II, pp. 128-130; Freeman. iV. C, V, Chap. XXII and Appendix; Maitland. Doinesday ana Beyond, Essay I; Round, Feudal England, pp. 8-147.

IBTRODUCTTON OF FEUDALISM: Adams and Stephens, p. 8; Wakeman and Hassall, pp. 45-112; Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 273-278, 281, seq.; Round, F, E., pp. 225-314.

The Manor: Lee, Source Book, p. 121; Pollock and Maitland, I, pp. 838, 861, R80, 68B. 698, 602, 605.6M; Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 90, 273-278, 896, 297; Maitland, Domesday and Beyond, pp. 107-128; see also Vlnogradoff, Villainage in England, and Seebohm, Th4 English Village Community.

The Norman and Angevin Kings and the Church: Gee and Hardv, DocumenU Illustrative of English Church History, pp. 62-92; Ramsay, II, pp. 88-84, 113, 187-180, 191-204, 207-211, 233 et al.: Stubbs, C. //., I, pp. 304, seq.; Pollock and Maitland, I, Dpw 125-131, 246-251. 433-458, II. pp. 189-192, 197-2U:H, 331-347. 864-398, 542-557; Hook, Licet oftM Archbishops, Vol. II ; Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, I, Chap. VIL

The Charter of Henry I. : Stubbs. 8. C, pp. 99-103; Lee, Source Book, pp. 125-188; Adams and Stephens, pp. 4-7; see Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series, VoL VIu, for critical review by Liebermann, 81-48,

Obganization of Popular Courts by Henry I. and Henry n.: Wakeman and Hassall, Dp. 112-158; Pollock and Maitland, I, pp. 42. 88, 96, 687-660, II, pp. 641-649; Stubbs, C. //., I, p. 418, seq.

BEGINNINGS of Oxford: Rashdall, The Universities of the Middle Ages, Vol. n, Pt. IL, pp. 819-36a

Abchitecture of Norman-Angevin England: Barnard, Companion to English History, Chaps. I-III, with references at end of chapters.

Monasticism: Norpcate, England under the Angevin Kings, I. pp. 68-81; Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars, 4th ed.. Chap. I; English Hist. Iieview,\6L VIII, pp ®4-676.

The Exchequer Systkm of Henry II.: Stubbs, S. C. d. 168, seq.; Henderson, Hist. Docs., p. 20, seq.; Terry, pp 212 and 213; Stubbs, C. H, I, p. 406, seq.; Pol- lock and Maitland, I, pp. 191-193; Dialogus de Scaccario, ed. by Huf^fhes, Crump, and Johnson, Oxford, 1903, Introduction, pp. 13-53; see also Introductory Volume to Pipe Bolls and Bladdox's History of the Exchequer.

Thomas & Becket: Green, History of the English People, 1, pp. 164-170; Norgate, H, pp. 1-81; Hook, Lirts of the Archbishops, Vol. II, Chap. VII.

The Scutage and Knight's Service: Stubbs, C, H., I, pp. 284, seq., 491, 498, 687. 656, 662. 578, 623, seq.; Pollock and Maitland, I, pp. 262-1^; Baldwin, Scutag$ and KiUghVt Service in England; Round. F, E.^ pp. 2S»-81i

i^M

136

SPECIAL TOPICS

Tbb CoNSTrnmoNS ov Clabsndon: Stnbbs, S, C, pp. Ifl^liO; Adams and Steptaeiis, p. 11 ; Oee and Hardy, pp. flB-70; Pollock and Maitland, I, pp. lao, seq., 445-457.

DavBLOPMBNT OF Tbial bt Jubt: Stubbs, 5. C, p. 72; Adams and Stephens, pp. 14, 10418; FoUock and BCalUand, I, pp. 180-149, 548, 608, n, pp. 608. 604, 616-638. 64l-66e; Thayer, A Preliminary TrmtiBe on Evidence^ Part I, the oest work In English on the development of trial by Jury; Bninner*8 EntteAung der SchwurgerichU (1871), the epoch marking treatise on this subject.

IBBLAND IK Nobman-Anobtin Eba: Joyoe, A Short History of Ireland to teoa; Round, The Commune of London^ Chaps. VII-VlII; Oreen, H, E. P., I, pp. 175-180; Norgate, II, Chap. UL

Thb Saxjidin Titbb: Stubbs, S. (7., p. 160; Adams and Stephens, p. 10; Stubbs, (7. if., I, pp. 688, 688.

TBB Towns and thb Oilds: Stubbs, C, H., I. pp. 488, seq.. Pollock and Maitland, Ij3p. 560-671, 605-688, II, pp. 648-640; Barnard, Companion to English History, Chap. Vu; Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce^ VoL I, Book II; Gross, The Gild Merchant, VoL I, Chaps. I-V.

TBB CiTT ov LiONDON— Organization in I8th Cbntubt: Round, The Commune of London, Chaps. V and XI; Stubbs, C, H, I, pp. 480-4&e. 678, seq.

Thb FOBrBiruBB ov thb Anobyin dominions bt John: Charles Bemont, Sevue Historigue, XXXTT, Part 3, np. 88-72, 890-811 ; Gullhlermoz, Bib. de L'ecole dee Charles, UC pp. 45-85; Norgate, John Lackland; see also her paper In Boyal Historical 8oc. Trans., New Series, Vol. XIV.

Tbm Obbat Chabtbb or John: Stubbs, S. (7., p. 206; Adams and Stephens, 42; for analysis of Charter, Taswell'Langmead, pp. 08-115; Stubbs, C, H., I, p. 660, seq.; Pollock and Maitland, I, pp. 171-178; Norgate, John Lackland; Oreen, H E, P., I, nK 106-240.

Tbm Pboyisxons ov Oxvobd and Wbstminstbb: Stubbs, S, C.^ p- 982; Adams and Stephens, pp. 56^.

SniON DB Montfobt and thb Babons: Adams and Stephens, pp. 56-67; Stubbs, Ths Early Plantagenets, Chap. IX, Green, H. E, P., I, pp. 870-812, ftothero, The Life qf Simon de Montjort,

THB Confirmation or thb Chabtebs: Stubbs, S, (7.,pb 416; Adams and Stephens, p. 68; Stubbs, O H. U. pp. 146, seq., 160, 154.

Thb English GoNSTmrnoN itndbr Edward L: Stubbs, S, C, 486, seq.; Adams and Stephens, pp. 68-98; Stubbs, C, if., II, p. 166, seq.: Green, H, JST. P, I, pp 818- •71 ; Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, Chap. X.

PART III— NATIONAL ENGLAND

THE EEA OF NATIONAL AWAKENING BOOK I— SOCIAL AWAKENING

FROM 1297 TO 1485

CHAPTER I

THB NEW EBA. THE STRUGGLE OF THE SCOTS FOB IKDE-

PEKDEKGE. THE FAVORITES

EDWARD L, txsn-tam

EDWARD n., 13Bn-t3Bn

A new era in English history begins with the last years of Edward's reign. With the determination of the internal stmcture

of the government, English kings began to adopt what nSs'SnH^ ^ ^^® modern politician would call a more brilliant policy,

plunging the nation into a long series of eztensire foreign wars, which in turn reacted powerfully upon all phases of national life, quickening national feeling, opening new ayenues of thought, stimulating new forms of economic activity, and ending at last in social upheaval and civil strife.

Premonitions of new life had long since been felt by the nation. In 1224 the Franciscans, the "Gray Friars," had

begun to reach England. Primarily they had devoted IvantfCMOfM. themselves to the alleviation of the sufferings of the

outcast poor, and in order to avoid the temptations which had turned aside the older orders, St. Francis, the founder, had discouraged learning among his followers as he had forbidden wealth. But the efforts of the brothers to care for the sick and improve the sanitary conditions which surrounded the poor, led them almost against their will to take up tbe study of medicine and the physical sciences; while the wide popularity of

187

188 THE NEW ERA [BdwabdL

their preaching and their constant warfare against tlie strange opinions which crusaders had brought back from the east, com- pelled them to study theology and logic. Into these SS^Il^^ new fields they entered with consecrated fervor, and could soon boast the greatest doctors of the age. Soger Bacon, the precursor of the modern scientist, was of their number. Many became teachers in the universities, where, as at Oxford, they helped to mould the thought of the coming generation. They were also quick to see the interest of their wards, the people, in the great political struggles of the century, and did not hesitate to plunge into the strife for the Charter. It was largely due to their influence that Earl Simon was so well understood and supported by the common people.

The universities also felt the new life. . The gathering of poor scholars at Oxford swelled rapidly during the thirteenth century. The course of study was still meager and ^^f^rsuigg narrow. Latin was the language of the class room. Greek was practically unknown; Aristotle reached the student only through garbled translations. Logic was the backbone of the educational system and dialectics was largely pursued for its own sake. Yet thinking men, like Roger Bacon, felt the barrenness of the methods in vogue, and urged not only a freer use of existing knowledge, but the search into wider fields. Student life and student thought, always rough, free, and hearty, was inclined to outrun the dignified pace of the teat hors, and, often in closer contact with the people than the church, refused to be bound by existing traditions, readily responding with the reckless fervor of youth to the stimulation of new and high ideals. Hence student influence was generally to bo found on the side of the man who durst question the right of tlie feudal lord or the authority of the wealthy clergy. In 1238 the students of Oxford openly attacked the papal legate, and in 12G4 the whole student body turned out to join the party of Earl Simon.

While the poor were suflfering, and the pious friars were grappling with the serious problems of the age, the rich were leading an unreal life which they stimulated by mock sentiment

1290] THE SCOTTISH SUCCESSION 139

and by turning serious matters into play. The early cmsades had provided the wild baronage of Europe with a real sentiment

in which they sought to realize the ''ideal of Christian

knighthood." But with the decline of the religions feryor which attended the early crusades, the vows of chivalry lost their significance. Their lofty sentiment became mere Bentimentalism, which failed to gloss the heartless brutality of the noble. Chivalry became more polished, more gorgeous, but also more hollow, more heartless. It sought its victories not in conflicts waged in defense of virtue or weakness or principle, but at graiid tournaments, where bodies of knights or squires joined in combat for the purpose of displaying their skill or courage. At these bloody orgies, ladies presided and awarded the prizes. Kenilworth became famous as the place where Edward held his **Round Table" in imitation of the imaginary glories of the fabled Arthur's court. Hither flocked the gay and frivolous worldlings of the court, the king, his knights and their ladies, ^'clad all in silk." The climax of this hollow extravagance was reached during the reign of Edward III. ; a fltting introduction to the era of luxury and cruelty which followed.

The era of foreign wars began with the attempt of Edward to subjugate Scotland. The direct line of William the Lion

became extinct in 1290 by the death of the little TTicSwftte?! Margaret, "the Maid of Norway." The younger

brother of William the Lion, David of Huntingdon, was represented by three male descendants: John Balliol, the grandson of David's eldest daughter; Eobert Bruce, the son of a second daughter, and John Hastings, the grandson of a third daughter. Hastings claimed that by feudal law the heirs of David's daughters should share the kingdom equally. But Bruce and Balliol advanced each his right to the whole kingdom; the one basing his claim upon a nearer descent from David, and the other upon the fact that he represented the eldest line. The claimants were more English than Scotch in feeling and naturally appealed to Edward for a decision. Edward agreed to act, but first insisted that the Scots should settle the long disputed question of his own overlordship by recognizing him as superior Iji^x^ ^

140 THE NEW EBA. [bdwabdI

the Scottish realm. He then examined the case with care, and after a year's delay awarded the claim to John Balliol. Balliol straightway did homage for his kingdom and was crowned. All parties apparently were satisfied.

Edward, however, took his orerlordship as a serious matter, and in an effort to enforce the appellate authority of his court over the court of the new King John, he soon became ^J^^'TisdiC' embroiled with the high-spirited Scottish nobles. John went to Westminster to protest in person against the usurpation of Edward, but his movements were too sluggish to satisfy the fiery spirits whom he had left at home, and in 1295 his nobles took the administration out of his hands altogether and put it into the hands of a commission in some such way as the English nobles had once assumed control of the government of Henry III. Edward, although at the time confronted by a war with the powerful Philip IV. of France, promptly invaded the country. Balliol cast in his lot with his nobles and formally renounced the homage which he had sworn in 1292. Edward then began the war in serious earnest. One by one the great strongholds fell into his hands and finally Balliol himself surren- dered. Ho then made Earl Warenne guardian and returned to England, taking with him to Westminster the famous stone of Scone, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish kings.

Edward^s triumph apparently was final Scotland lay under

his feet, prostrate, destitute; her strongholds hold by English

garrisons, her dethroned king a captive in a foreign

ing under prisou. Yet Edward had hardly turned his back,

WaUace, 1237. , j- • l- i. . i i_. .

when disquieting rumors began to reach him from his new conquest. Earl Warenne, although guardian of the realm, turned the administration over to two men, Cressingham the treasurer, and Ormesby the justiciar, who were utterly incapable of understanding the Scottish people ; nor was it long before the discontent aroused by their petty tyrannies passed into widespread revolt, and the Highlands far and near blazed with the fires of a bloody guerrilla warfare. All other leaders, however, soon sank into shadow by the side of the famous Wallace, whose daring and energy awed and terrified the English, as it inspired

1297. 1298] PALKIBK 141

and heartened his own people. Edward was absent in Flanders. The absentee guardian of Scotland roused himself, and entering the country with a great army, approached Stirling. His first division, however, under the hated Cressingham, was neth,8ept, successfully ambushed at Gambuskenneth by Wallace

and Sir Andrew Murray, and cut off almost to a man. The main body of the*English retired. The news of the victory electrified the prostrate nation; the lukewarm and the cautious hesitated no longer; everywhere the Scots rose and the English garrisons fled for their lives. Scotland was now again in the hands of her own people, and a provisional government was organ- ized under Wallace and Murray, who assumed the titles of '* Gene- rals of the Army of the Kingdom of Scotland and Guardians of the Realm for King John."

Edward saw that if he would save Scotland, he must return at once. At the head of a large army he again crossed the border. Wallace's tactics were simple and would eampaign of have succeeded, had he dealt with a less able general. """^^ The Lowlands were harried by his orders and nothing was left that might feed an invading army. The English were sore put to it for food, and a disgraceful retreat, which must have been final, seemed unavoidable, when Edward by one of those brilliant movements which mark the great general, suddenly confronted Wallace in Falkirk wood and, compelling him to fight against his will, completely overwhelmed his army of pikemen.

Wallace's power melted away as rapidly as it had risen. He escaped from Falkirk to spend the next six years in hiding; but was finally betrayed by the Scots, delivered over to Edward, and put to death as a traitor. The people, however, would not forget him. He became the hero of the struggle for independence. Even the well-earned fame of the younger Bruce paled before the favorite of legend and song, the first among Scottish national patriots.

Although Wallace had been routed and his power dispelled, the Scottish war was by no means over. After six years, however, Edward by the good offices of Boniface VIII., was enabled to

142 THE NEW ERA [sdwam»L

make his peace with Philip, and the Scottish nobles, no longer buoyed up by the prospect of French support, acknowledged the Endqfamud ^^sclessness of Continuing the struggle. John Comyn, SStondT *'* ^ nephew of Balliol, who had been acting as his regent, law. agreed to a peace on condition that the Scottish barons

should not be deprived of their lands, but should be allowed to redeem them by the payment of a fine. In the meantime, Edward was maturing plans for the settlement of the kingdom, and a really good scheme was struck out. But he was to meet the common experience of most ambitious sovereigns who attempt to foist a foreign government upon a high-spirited and warlike people against their will. The temporary successes of Wal- lace, followed by the glorious but ineffectual struggle carried on by Andrew Murray and John Comyn, bad appealed power- fully to national sentiment and the people only waited for a new leader.

This leader appeared in the young Robert Bruce, grandson of that Robert Bruce who had been Balliol's rival. Hitherto he

had been on the English side and high in favor with gj^ J^ Edward, who had trusted him and consulted him upon

the reorganization of the country. But in 1306, in an interview at Dumfries with Comyn, who was heir to Balliol's claims, hot words had arisen between the two men, swords had been drawn, and Comyn was slain. Bruce, an outlaw and a murderer, had then fled to the mountains of Galloway, and, apparently in self-defense, had raised the standard of revolt. In March, 130C, he was able to make his way to Scone and secure a coronation.

Edward heard of the new revolt, and roused himself to crush it. His efforts, however, only added fuel to the insurrection.

The war took on more and more the character of a Edward, national rising, and in 1307 Bruce was able to take the

field at the head of a considerable forco. The old king, broken by fifty years of service, rose from his bed to put himself at the head of his troops as of yore; but the effort was too much for his failing strength. He died at Burgh-on-the- Sands, July 7, 1307.

1810-1818] THE LORDS 0BDAINEB8 143

The new king, Edward of Garnaryon, was able to do little towards the reduction of Scotland. He tied himself to a con- wtaknenaf t^^P^ble favorite of his boyhood, a Gascon by the p!tef»Sa»S?.' ^^^^ of Piers Gaveston, who encouraged him in «<^ dissipation and costly extravagance, and used his

influence for his own ends. The foreign birth of Gaveston, his rapid elevation, his worthlessness, roused the enmity of the baronage, and created a powerful anti-administration party among the nobility, of whom Thomas, earl of Lancaster, the son of Edmund Crouchback, the once titular king of Sicily, was the leader.

The recall of Gaveston after a temporary banishment, finally so roused the barons that in 1310 they took the government out of the hands of the king altogether and put it into the Ordodiers, hands of a committee of administration composed of twenty-one barons, known as the * * Lords Ordainers, " who were specially commissioned to reform existing abuses and to reg- ulate the king's household. The report of the Lords Ordainers, known as the "Ordinances," consisted of forty-one articles, and besides demanding the permanent expulsion of Gaveston, dealt with current abuses, some of which were as old as Magna Charta.

Edward, cowed and humbled, signed the Ordinances, but entreated the barons to save his "brother Piers." He then went north, where the rising power of Bruce had long since ^I»;2fL*^ demanded attention. Here he no sooner found him- self out from under the shadow of the Lords Ordain- ers, than he defied the Ordinances and called his favorite to his side. This new evidence of the bad faith of the king was too much for the temper of the barons. They appealed at once to arms, took Gaveston at Scarbprough, and later put him to death at Warwick Castle. The unhappy king was powerless to punish; he had to content himself with receiving the feigned submission of the men who had slain his favorite, and proclaim a general am- nesty.

The troubles of Edward with his barons and the general crip- pled condition of the English government resulting, had been the opportunity of Bruce. One by one the great strongholds fell vntA

144 THE NEW EB& [■»**»&

hb hands, and b; the opening of 1313 only Stirling held ont for the English king. The garrison were sore pressed and Philip g„ggfgfgf Mowbray, the goTernor, agreed to surrender, it they tfBnux. ^arg not relieved before June 24, 1314.

Edward bad time enough to relieve the town and was in fact

deeply starred by the new responsibility which the conditions

accepted by Mowbray imposed npon him. Bat he

I master. The barons were not

inclined to trust him with a large army. The months

of grace slipped by. The king urged and pleaded. Still Lancaster

and bis men held aloof; yet as the last days approached, they

ere appar-

Burrender, Edward advanced to the attack. The English com- manders, however, possessed little skill in marshalling their men; the men, little confidence in their leaders. The battle ended in a wild panic of the English, in which thousands were cut down by the Scottish horse. Even the king escaped to Berwick with great difficnlty.

1818-1828] PEACE OF NORTHAMPTON 145

Edward for the moment talked wildly of summoning a new army and renewing the war. It was evident to Edward's adyisers, however, that the country was utterly disheartened, that no one had confidence either in the king^s ability or bis courage, and that a second attempt would only invite fresh disaster. Yet no one dared to propose peace while the disgrace of Bannockburn rankled in the pablic mind. The king, also, was obstinate in his determination to regard Bruce as a rebel, and persisted in refusing to listen to any of his overtures. Bruce on his part fully appreciated the significance of his victory, and was more than ever determined to compel the English to recognize the independence which he had now won. The capture of Berwick in 1318 opened the eastern highway into England, and every harvest time saw the Scots in the saddle, and the English farmers fleeing for their lives, their hayricks and granaries going up in flames, their cattle gracing the homeward march of the Scots. In a single raid the Scots burned Scarborough, Northallerton, Borough- bridge, and Skip ton. In 1319 the Yorkshire farmers, led by their priests in their white surplices, attempted to make a stand at Myton, but the simple peasantry fled at the flrst rush of Bandolph's men-at-arms. They were cut down like sheep. So

many of the clergy were slain that the battle, or rather ^y^^ massacre, was known as the "Chapter of Myton." Still

Edward refused to recognize Robert Bruce as king of Scotland. In 1322 he again attempted to invade the country, but only to bring the Scots to the gates of York for his pains. It was more than ever evident that nothing was to be gained by further war, and in 1323 Edward prudently determined to unload part of his trouble by giving peace to the northern borders. The truce was to last thirteen years, and Bruce in the meantime was to take

the title of king. Upon the accession of Edward III., Narthamp' however, Brucc seized the opportunity to force upon

England a full recognition of his claims and the accept- ance of a permanent peace. The treaty was signed at Northampton in 1328. England formally recognized Bruce as king of Scotland and renounced all claims to the Scottish overlordship. So at last, for the time, ended the struggle for Scottish inde^ndfikTi^^.

146 THB NEW EBA [bdwabbIL

Edward in the meantime had been overwhelmed in the pit of his own digging. Soon after Bannockbufn, Lancaster had become

the dominant spirit both at the council board and in SSow^i/. *^® army. He removed old ministers and appointed

now ones at will. He fixed an allowance for the kinf *i expenses and determined his personal friends. But unfortunately he proved as incompetent in administration as he had been unscrupulous and violent in opposition. The baronage would ncl endure his despotic ways; they broke up into rival factions, and turning their arms against each other, left the Scots to plunder and ravage the northern shires as they pleased. A serious failure of the harvest added to the distress caused by domestic anarchy and foreign war, and the people were not slow to charge the government with their misfortunes. In their despair the hearts of the people turned once more to their king. Affairs had gone better when he was left free to bring whom he would into his council chamber. Even Gaveston had managed things better than this. So the balance began to shift again and Edward's chance of once more controlling his government began to mend.

Two new men now became prominent among the rival factions of the baronage and by making the cause of the despised king

their own, secured a marked advantage over their DtSpensers, ^oUows. These men were the Despensers, father and

son. Unlike the fallen Gaveston, they represented one of the fine old Norman-English families of the baronage, which for generations had been closely identifled with the political history of the country. Earl Thomas hated the elder Despenser and held him as his personal enemy, while the barons affected to regard him as a traitor to their cause because he supported the king. The son, also Hugh le Despenser, was nearer the king's age; ambitions, avaricious, and not overscrupulous as to the means employed to gain his ends. He had married a sister of Gloucester, and after the earl's death at Bannockburn had come in for a third of his vast estates, becoming thus by right of his wife one of the richest lords of England. In the new government organized after the fall of Berwick, he had been made chamberlain,

132M822] THE DESPENSEBS 147

and was thus brought into direct personal relations to the king, nor had he hesitated to take advantage of the enforced loneliness and isolation of the unhappy man to worm his way into the place of confidence once held by the fallen Gaveston.

Of the unscrupulous greed of the Despensers there can be little doubt. It is not unlikely, however, that some of the principles adopted by the old popular party of Earl VieDetpenB- Simon's day had descended with the family traditions. At all events some of the maxims ascribed to the younger Hugh reveal a grasp of the principles of constitutional government far in advance of his age. One element, however, the Despensers had not fully considered; and that was the latent hostility of the nation to the royal favorite, in whatsoever guise he might appear. Earl Thomas and his friends, therefore, found little difficulty in appealing to this deep-seated prejudice, and persuaded even the lukewarm that a new Gaveston had arisen in the younger Hugh. So great had become the unpopularity of the pair that in the parliament of 1321 almost the entire baronage turned upon the favorites; and the lords, **peers of the realm" as they had begun to call themselves, passed a formal sentence, decreeing the Despenser estates forfeited, and banishing the Despensers from the land.

The triumph of Thomas was as brief as the reverse was fatal. An insult offered to the queen by Lady Badlesmere, gave the king a pretext for raising an army. The barons joined Earl Thomas, him, and Thomas, who had no love to spare on the Badlesmeres, held aloof. But the king finding him- self at the head of an army at last, with that energy which even the most contemptible of the Plantagenet race were capable of displaying at times, turned upon Thomas. Thomas was taken by surprise, and before he could gather any considerable force was routed at Boroughbridge. Four days later, he was tried in his own castle of Pontefract, condemned as a traitor, and straightway put to death. With characteristic inconsistency the people for- got his blunders and lamented Boroughbridge as a second Evesham, and Thomas as a second Montfort.

Six weeks after Boroughbridge, Edward held a parliament at

148 THE NEW EBA. [bdwabo XL

York, and secured not only the revocation of the Ordinances bnt also a formal declaration of the right of the commonalty of the realm as well as of prelates and earls to be repre- mentof York, sented in the settlement of all matters pertaining to the estate of the realm and the people; the govern- ment must not again be put into the hands of an irresponsible commission as in 1311.

The Despensers were now supreme. Earl Thomas had left his brother Henry as his heir, but the king, by refusing to confer upon Henry the Lancastrian estates, had made him, for beiiaasa the time at least, a political cipher. But there was one whom neither the king nor the Despensers had taken into their calculations, — the French queen of Edward, Isabella. With all his faults Edward had not been an unkind husband; but the sympathy of the queen with Lancaster had forbidden the fullest confidence between the royal pair. Isabella, moreover, hated the king's new favorites, and soon became the center of a widely extended intrigue.

In 1322 Isabella's brother, Philip V. of France, died, and the new king Charles IV., also a brother, summoned Edward in The center accordance with the custom of the feudal age to come %1/uE}'^^ to France and do homage for the fiefs which he held of France. the French crown. Under existing conditions Edward did not dare to leave his kingdom, and when Charles insisted upon his demand, in sore despair he sent over his queen to plead his cause. She parted with him on good terms, and at the French court presented his cause with such apparent success that Charles agreed to allow her son. Prince Edward, to represent his father, and to make over the provinces to him in the king's stead.

The unhappy king had fallen into a most cunningly devised trap. The young prince had hardly reached France, when all disguise was thrown off by the queen and she openly mS^MUjeUcL ]^^^®^ ^^® king's bitterest enemies. The most danger- ous of these was Roger Mortimer, the lord of Wigmore, an old friend of Lancaster, who had recently escaped from the Tower and now found at the French court ample opportunity tor satisfying his desire for revenge. He won an unbounded

1826, 1827] THE ABDICATION OF EDWARD II. 149

inflnence oyer the queen's mind, and used it to the nndoing of the king.

Edward knew what was going on but was helpless to defend himself from the threatened blow. In September, 1326, Isabella

landed in Suffolk with a foreign army and at once pro- isabeUa, claimed her mission as the * 'avenger of Lancaster and

the sworn foe of the favorites." The earls, the bishops, Henry of Lancaster, the king's half-brothers, all, almost to a man, went over to the queen. The king fled to Gloucester, then to Wales, whence he sought to pass into Ireland. On October 26, the queen reached Bristol ; here she took the elder Despenser, and hanged him forthwith. The lords in her train declared Prince Edward ^'Guardian of the Kingdom," and in his name summoned a parliament. In the meantime the queen continued to make havoc among her husband's friends and advisers. The young Despenser was taken with the king on November 16, and on the 24th was hanged, drawn, and quartered; the king was brought to Kenilworth for safe keeping.

On January 7, 1327, the parliament which the lords had summoned assembled at Westminster. If the fallen king had

friends, none dared to raise hand or voice in his

The olxlico-

utm of Ed- defense. He was accused of incompetence, and of per- ' sistently and obstinately putting himself into the hands of evil counsellors ; he was made responsible for the loss of Scot- land and for most of the evils which had thus far attended his reigu; above all, it was alleged that he was without hope of amendment. There was no trial; it was assumed that these charges were proved by common notoriety. There was no formal act of deposition; for the unhappy king, shorn of his friends and abandoned by the nation, was easily induced to renounce the honors of the royal office by a formal abdication. On the 20th of January the parliament renounced the homage and fealties of its members, and the steward of the household publicly broke his staff as a token that Edward II. had ceased to reign. Eight months later the fallen king was murdered at Berkeley Castle in some mysterious way, so cunningly devised as to leave no mark of violence upon his person.

160 OPENIHTG OF HUHTDBED TEARS WAB [Bi»wA»m.

The constitntional significance of the reign of Edward II. is of considerable importance. The right of the nation to a voice in C<m8tuutumai ^^® selection of the king's ministers was undoubtedly ^g^^JJJ^ set forth in the successive overthrow of the favorites, cf Edward 11. Qaveston and the Despensers, although it was to be a long time before the principle would be definitely accepted, or its full significance understood. Linked with the right of the nation to a voice in the control of the king's ministers, or rather the justification of the principle itself, was still another idea, which since the days of John Lackland had been slowly but surely taking definite shape in the mind of the people: that the crown was not a piece of private property to be administered or neglected in accordance with the whim or caprice of the incumbent, but that it was a public trust, and that the accident of birth, instead of granting to a king immunities such as no subject enjoyed, imposed rather responsibilities which made him beyond all men the servant of the nation, and that as a servant he was to be held to a strict and awful accountability.

CHAPTER II

EDWABD III. THE OPENING OF THE HUNDRED YEARS WAB

EDWARD III., 1327-t3€0

The actual reign of Edward III. did not begin until 1330. After the deposition of his father a nominal regency was appointed, jMheiia and ^^^ *'^® ^®^^ governors of England were Mortimer and pmotrT^^ Isabella, who while keeping themselves in the back- '^^' ground dictated to the council, bullied parliaments,

and struck oflf the head of any one who durst oppose them. In their desperation the nobles at last turned to the boy king, who in 1330 was in his eighteenth year, and had long felt deeply the humiliation of his position. Accompanied by a determined band, Edward went to Nottingham, secretly gained access to the castle through an underground passage, since known as "Mortimer's Hole," and seizing the favorite in the presence of the queen, bore him off to London, where he was promptly hanged at the

"N" G li A :N D

1882, 1888] BDWARD BALLIOL 151

Elms. Isabella was sent to Castle Rising where she was kept a prisoner until her death, twenty-eight years later.

The first acts of Edward were directed to the suppression of the disorder which had sprung up under the weak government of his father. The Statute of Winchester of Edward I. ^f^jj^^^ had made each locality responsible for all crime within its precincts ; the leading men of each county were now in addition to assemble the people by hue and cry, and pursue the peace-breaker "from vill to vill" and "from hundred to hundred." The king was also to make regular tours through the counties to see that this law was observed. The courts of ^Urailbaston," which had been instituted under special com- missions by Edward I. for the purpose of dealing with gangs of outlaws too powerful for the ordinary courts to handle, were also revived, and did good service during the first twenty years of Edward III.'s reign. In 1347 these special courts were superseded by the appointment of permanent local officers known as "keepers of the peace," who soon began to be called "justices of the peace," and became a recognized part of the police system of the counties.

While the young Edward was thus putting his hand to the restoration of order within his kingdom, fresh troubles arose with Scotland which taxed seriously the wisdom of the new UoVa atumpt administration. In the summer of 1332 a mere hand- land, 1832, f ul of adventurers had followed Edward Balliol, son of the quondam King John, upon a wild expedition into Scotland, and strange to say had not only defeated the regent of the kingdom at Dupplin Moor, but a month later, September 24, had succeeded in getting Balliol crowned at Scone, Five weeks later, Balliol was driven from the country by the revival of the old Scottish national party. Edward then took up the quarrel, recognized Balliol as rightful king of Scotland, accepted his homage, and sent him back with an English army to support his claim. Edward himself joined the invaders before Berwick, and when the Scots attempted to relieve the town, met them at Halidon 33111, where mainly through the efficiency of the English archery, he administered such a crushing defeat^ t\^\» I^t ^Om^

152 OPENIKG OF HUKDBED YEARS WAR [eowabd m.

moment it seemed that all that the Scots had gained by a genera- tion of sacrifice had been lost.

Elated by his success in thus finally and to all appearance permanently restoring the superior lordship of the English kiu^

in Scotland, Edward turned his attention to France. fnr war with Gharlos IV., the last male of the direct line of Capet,

had died in 1328, and the crown had been transferred to Philip of the younger branch of Valois. The new king had adopted fully the traditional policy of the French court, and had seized every opportunity of harassing the English. He had managed to keep the borders of Guienne in turmoil ; he had also renewed the alliance of Philip IV. with the Scots, and had not only giyen a refuge to the infant king David, but had con- tinued to send ships and money to the Scottish coast in order to keep alive the old Scottish national party. But even more annoying to the English, during the generation past, the depreda- tions of French pirates in the Channel had been steadily increas- ing; the French coast cities, which were fattening upon the illicit trade, openly sheltered and abetted piratical enterprise. In the three years which followed Halidon Hill, therefore, it was evident that war could not be far oflf. Parliament voted large grants of money, and the seaport towns were directed to furnish ships for the defense of the coasts. Edward, also, sought to offset the Scottish alliance of Philip by an alliance with the petty principalities which fringed the eastern borders of France, for the most part purchasing their support outright either by subsidy or by the promise of important commercial advantages.

Of these- allies, the Flemings were the most important. In the industrial arts, they were the foremost people of Europe.

Their cities teemed with hard-headed burghers who

had made fortunes by manufacturing English-grown wool, and had little sympathy with the feudal maxims which controlled the French kingdom of which they were nominally a

part. Nine cities had already formed a defensive tanceo/the league Under the inspiration of the famous ** Brewer of

Ghent," James Van Arteveldt, and, quick to see the advantage of an alliance with the country which furnished the

1837-1842] FIRST YEARS OF WAR 153

wool for their looms, now readily yielded themselves to the bland- ishments of Edward.

The war began in 1337 with the attempt of Edward to support the Flemings in their revolt against Count Louis of Flanders.

The next year he went to the continent in person and yean of war, began a direct attack upon France, using Flanders as

a base. Little was gained, however, by these early operations and after five years, if there was any advantage on either side, it lay with Philip rather than Edward. The frontier cities were huge fortresses or fortified camps, well garrisoned for long sieges, and successfully resisted all the strength that Edward could bring to bear upon them. Philip on his part refused to be drawn into a general engagement, satisfied to see Edward wear out the patience of his troops and exhaust his resources in useless campaigning against stone walls. Edward's allies, also, bore him little valuable assistance; they were apparently more interested in drawing his subsidies than in defeating his enemies. In June, 1340, Edward had succeeded in destroying Philip's fieet in the harbor of Sluys and thus gained permanent control of the Channel, but he had failed to take any advantage of his victory and had gone on besieging Philip's big frontier towns. To offset Sluys, more- over, the lieutenants of Philip had broken into Gascony and now held a part of that unhappy country in his name. More serious still, in 1339 the Scots had finally expelled Edward Balliol, and with the aid of French troops were rapidly recovering their cities and castles and were once more menacing the northern shires of England. In January, 1340, Edward, in order to satisfy some of lis continental allies who objected to fighting their sovereign in person, had revived an old claim to the French crown which had originally been advanced by Isabella on the death of Charles IV. in 1328, and formally proclaimed himself King of France, quarter- ing the arms of the leopards with those of the fieur-de-lis and adopting the motto "God and my right." The claim, however, although put forth as a war measure, was really of little service. Moreover, it seriously obscured the original eause of the war, and robbed Edward of the moral advantage which up to this point had been largely his; Englishmen might su^^tt bSxsx

154 OPENING OF HUNDRED YEARS WAR [bdwabdIH.

enthusiastically in his efforts to break up French piracy or to punish Philip for his interference in Scottish affairs, but they would hesitate to spend blood or fortune in supporting a question- able claim to Philip's crown.

In 1341 the death of John of Brittany opened the question

of the succession to the duchy. Edward seized the opportunity

of asserting his authority by supporting the claims of

Ruccesaion, John de Montfort against Philip's candidate, Charles

1341 1342* o A '

of Blois. Edward's candidate soon found his way into one of Philip's prisons, and in January, 1343, at Malestroit, Edward himself in order to save his army was glad to accept a truce and retire from the country.

The two years which followed Malestroit were spent largely in a useless attempt to secure some satisfactory basis of agreement

through the offices of the pope as arbitrator. But newed^i&tt *^® issue between Philip and Edward couFd not now

be settled by arbitration ; from the nature of their rival claims, peace could come only after one or both parties had been entirely exhausted. In 1345, therefore, the struggle was renewed with greater bitterness than ever. In Flanders the old league had been seriously crippled by the revolt of the small towns, that had resented the monopolies which the cities had sought to enforce; in the struggle, also. Van Arteveldt, Edward's old friend, had been slain. Accordingly Edward abandoned his former plan of attacking the French border cities through Flanders and chose Aquitaine and Normandy instead. In the summer of 1345 he sent to Aquitaine a considerable army under thiB command of Henry, earl of Derby, the son of Henry of Lancaster. Derby was a commander of no mean parts, and by a series of brilliant successes fully justified the confidence of the king.

In the spring the main expedition under Edward in person landed in Normandy. Without any particular plan other than

to punish the coast towns for their piracies, he began paignof ravaging the country, pillaging the cities, and burning

the shipping, but moving in a general easterly direction with Calais possibly as his goal. When he reached the Seine he found the bridges broken and the shipping carefully removed

1846] CBECT 15S

ont of reach. Philip lay at St. Donys with a force that ont- nnmhered Edward's little army two to one. Philip apparently belieTed that Edward was still following his old tactics and that the big city which he looked for this time waa Paris itself. As usual, therefore, he kept his army out of Edward's way, while Edward hnmored the French by ascending the river and making a feint of attacking the city. In the meanwhile, however, he had qnietly repaired the bridge of Poissy, and on the 10th of Aagast quietly stole across the river and marched away toward the Somme. When Philip discovered that his insolent foe was actually I retreat, ^ ^^

I

lish numbered about four thousand horse and ten thousand archers, besides an irregular body of Irish and Welsh footmen. The French by this time numbered probably not far from seventy thousand men. Wallace and Bruce had taught the English the value of pikemen in a defenaive battle ; the English themselves had developed the long- bow to a remarkable degree of proficiency. Edward, therefore, abandoning the conventional methods of fighting prescribed by the customa of chivalry, parked his horses in the roar and drew up his knights in three divisions in close order as pikemen. The archerB and Welsh footmen were deployed in front and on the wings. From the first, Philip had no control of his army, and apparently made no effort to hold his knights together or harl

156 OPEKING OF HUNDRED YEARS WAR [edwabdIH.

them in masses upon the English lines. He opened the battle by ordering forward a body of six thousand Genoese cross-bowmen to engage the English archers and if possible break the formation of the knights; but the cross-bow was no match for the long-bow and under the first arrow-flight the cross-bowmen broke and fled. The French knights then rushed forward to engage the English men-at-arms. But the broken, irregular bands could not bring BufiQcient pressure to bear upon any one point at any time to threaten seriously the English formation, and although they gallantly returned again and again to the onset, accomplishing prodigious feats of valor, the English loss was inconsiderable. Night at last put an end to the useless carnage. Philip, wounded in body and broken in spirit, fled to Amiens, leaving behind him on the field twelve princes of France, thirteen hundred knights, and sixteen thousand lesser folk.

Edward advanced to Calais and began the siege of that important place. Philip roused the Scots to action in hope of forcing Edward to return home to defend his northern iau,i34e, borders; but the northern earls, Henry Neville and Ralph Percy, proved themselves amply able to hold the borders, meeting the Scots at Neville's cross, and beating them with great slaughter, taking King David himself. An attempt of the French to relieve Calais by water met with no better success. At last in the spring Philip managed to get another army into the field; but he could no longer bring his troops to face the English archers, and after an ignominious retreat was compelled to leave the brave burghers to throw themselves on Edward's mercy.

The first thought of Edward was of slaughter. But better counsels prevailed, and he determined, by repairing the walls, and introducing a powerful resident garrison, to make Calais an outpost of England on French soil. The town at once took on new life, becoming the chief channel of English trade with the continent. It remained in English hands for two hundred and ten years, during the most of which it enjoyed an unexampled prosperity.

When Edward returned to England he was at the height of

EFFECTS OF THE WAB 157

his glory and the idol of the hour. The spoils of war, the plunder of France, poured into the kingdom. "There was no woman," Bariv^ect ^^ ^^ ^*^^' "who had not got garments, furs, feather %)onEna' ^^8, and utousils from the spoils of Calais and Sr^iVe. other foreign cities." The country forgot the earlier drain upon its resources. A new taste for articles of luxury and extravagance was awakened, and swept away even the sober- yisaged clergy. It expressed itself in marvelous gowns of great length, trimmed with furs, and stiff with embroideries ; in hanging sleeves, so long that they could be tied behind the back ; in shoos with wonderfully pointed toes that had to be fastened to the knees with silver chains. It was the heyday of the furrier and the clothier. A single gown would cost the price of a duke's ransom. The king led in this extravagant foppery. He decorated a select band of his knights with a "blue garter," thus originating the famous order. He held tournaments without number, — as many as nineteen within a six-month, some of them lasting more than a fortnight. Hither flocked the gay and frivolous court, to lead in the carnival and set the people wild in their mad pursuit of French and Italian fashions. The chase, also, hunting or hawk- ing, lost nothing of its charm for the elegant idlers who surrounded the court. Vast tracts of land were kept waste, and troops of gaily attired men and women swept by in wild rout in pursuit of the quarry, trampling down the crops of the peasantry and destroying the food supply of the hapless poor.

The taste for extravagance was also revealed in the architec- ture of the period. The old pointed arch, which had supplanted

the simple and massive architecture of the Normans, cKwteSSne. readily yielded to elaborate decoration, — the "decorated

style." The castles of the nobility changed from gloomy strongholds into elegant palaces, which vied with each other in the tapestries that hung from the walls or the exquisite carvings that ornamented beds, tables, and chairs. In London the houses of the tradesmen rose two and three stories high. Qlass, also, was coming into use, though only the rich and the great could yet afford it. There were larders, too, butteries, and wardrobes, filled with endless supplies which were the pride of the housewit^*

158 OPENING OF HUNDRED YEARS WAR [edwaw m.

In other less direct ways, also, the war had powerfully stimulated the development of the resources of the country. To furnish a foundation for the revenues which the war S^^f-demanded. Edward had sought to encourage both industry and commerce. Ho ordered that foreign merchants be allowed to enter the country freely and sell their wares without interruption. He brought over weavers from Flanders and furnished a market for English wool at home. And when the people began to show an undue preference for foreign- made goods, he forbade them to wear any cloth not made in English towns. The nobles and the wealthy, however, he exempted from the law. To keep control of the wool trade, he forbade the exportation of English rams, and allowed the raw wool to be sold- abroad only at authorized ports, or staples. Sometimes he attempted to prevent the exportation of wool altogether. Sometimes he turned merchant himself and used the royal authority to control the market. Yet in spite of these arbitrary rulings of the government, the war created a vigorous demand for the products of all kinds of industry ; wages were good ; food was abundant ; prices were steady, and trade, secure in the prestige of England on the seas, flourished.

Suddenly over all this prosperity the ** Black Death" cast its shadow. This mysterious malady, it is thought, appeared first in China about the year 1333, and following the old Death, 1348, trade routes extended steadily westward, reaching the eastern Mediterranean the year after Crecy. In August, 1348, it appeared in England. Its ravages were appal- ling; no part of the kingdom was exempt; no class was spared. The nation put off its festal attire and sat in the presence of its dead.

Then the horrOr passed by, but the desolation remained. It was said that of the entire population one in three had perisheil. The labor element naturally suffered most. Its strength B^k^ ^th, ^^^ shattered. Whole families had been swept away ; in many manors rows of tenantless cottages, silent and forsaken, were all that remained to tell of the population that had disappeared. The life of the nation, however, had

ENGLISH BUBAL LIFB 159

been so quickened by all the experiences of the century, its pulse was so strong and steady, that prostration could not last long. Yet the symptoms of convalescence were hardly understood by the king or his advisers. The free life of the nation was fettered by restrictions upon labor and trade, designed no doubt with the best intent, but destined to bring new and unheard-of disorders in their train.

At the opening of Edward III.'s reign, rural England apparently had not passed very far beyond the condition of the rural England of the eleventh century; the manor was Enifiaiidin still the prevailing form of organization of the agricul- tural community. The village life was still simple and isolated; although comforts were few, there was always plenty to eat and vagrancy was virtually unknown. The lord lived quietly in his manor, surrounded by his family and his house- hold servants, fully occupied with the homely duties of his station. The great outer world broke in occasionally when some preaching friar or pardoner from Rome came that way, with fresh stores of gossip from court or council, not the least popular of his wares. There were sabbaths and feast days also, when young and old made merry and joined in the rude old country sports. There were the great fairs too, whither the bailiffs brought their woolpacks, and whither the good wife went with '*her man" to buy the supplies for the year to come. Sometimes, also, when the work of the summer was done and the granaries were full, lord and villain, freeholder and artisan, clerk and scrivener, might be seen drifting along the pleasant highways, entertaining each other by guileless tales and seeking the shrine of some neighboring saint, for the rest of their bodies and the good of their souls.

Yet even when Edward began his reign these pleasant scenes

were not without some signs of change. The long era of domestic

peace which liad followed the close of the Barons'

EnoiiMh Wars, and had hardly been broken by the troubles

rural life,

which had attended the reign of the second Edward, the steady development of the cities, the growth of corporate privi- leges and the extension of economic activities into new fields, had not been without a direct and wholesome influence u^xLtVi^

160 OPENING OF HUNDRED YEABS' WAR [ei»wam>1IL

manor and its tenants. This influence was manifesting itself in two very marked ways. Firsts the custom was steadily prevailing of allowing the tenant to exchange his ordinary labor service into a regular money service, or rental ; the lord on his part hiring such labor as he needed and paying regular wages. When the villain secured the privilege of paying a stated rent for his land in lieu of the ancient labor service, a memorandum of the agreement was indorsed on the manor roll ; a copy was given to the villain, who became a copyholder; the land was known as a copyhold. Second^ with the increase of luxury the lord lost his taste for the old quiet life of the manor and preferred rather to let the demesne outright with all that belonged to it in the way of farm buildings, implements, and stock.

The first effect of the Hundred Years' War had been greatly to accelerate the changes which the long-continued tide of prosperity had already set in motion. The people ^[aeh%eath. ^®S*^ ^^ regard luxury in dressing and living as some- thing desirable. Their needs, also, increased with the development of taste, and they became dissatisfied, restless, grasping, and hard. Then came the Black Death, and by shattering the strength of the laboring class, struck directly at the basis of all this prosperity. Landlords could not get "hands" to save their rotting crops. In their distress they competed with each other in offering higher wages. This in turn reacted upon the villains who still held land under the old service tenure and who saw themselves thereby prohibited from taking advantage of the general increase in wages. They became dissatisfied and refused to work for their lords. Smaller tenants left their crops standing and went out to work for their richer neighbors. Land sank in value, and tenants who held by copyhold, could no longer keep up their rental and pay the prevailing ruinous wages.

The distress and confusion which now fell most heavily upon

the landlords, attracted the attention of the government, and the

kine: attempted to remedy the evils which he did not

Interference ° ,t^,. >, ^^t

of govern- Understand. By the famous Statute of Labourers

tncnL

parliament attempted to proscribe a regular scale of wages, corresponding to the rates paid before the appearance of

1840-1869] STATUTE OF LABOURERS 161

the plague. The laborer who refused to work at such wages was to be put in the stocks. If he went into another shire in search

of higher wages, he was to be branded in the forehead. haSowm. These laws, harsh and cruel as they were senseless,

only increased the sufferings of the poor and did not help the landlords. Yet they were reenacted again and again, the penalties each time increasing in severity. Still the suffering and the confusion continued. Then it dawned upon the king and his economists that the cost of living had also risen, that not only had the cost of labor advanced but the cost of everything that labor produced was also advancing, and that a man could not be expected to accept for a week's work wages which would not keep himself and his family for a day. So the king turned his attention to the regulation of prices. In this he was also guided by the popular prejudices of the hour. He turned upon the **fore- stallers," men who purchased in large quantities to sell later at retail, and forbade ''forestalling" under pain of the pillory. Merchants also were forbidden to bid against each other in the fish market, lest they should raise the price of fish. In the meantime the Black Death came and went again; first in 1349, again in 1369; each time leaving an aftermath of economic and social disorder. In vain the reeves or manor stewards attempted to force men to work for the wages prescribed by law. Their crops were in the field and must be gathered. They themselves were the first to weaken and seek laborers at any price. In vain they sought to exact to the utmost the services of those who still lived under the older system. In vain the government took fish- mongers and forestallers in hand. Prices continued to rise, and wages continued to increase, and the interference of the govern- ment only exasperated the people and laid up trouble for the future. The war had now languished for eight years. There had been no formal peace, not even a truce ; yet neither nation had

the heart to renew the struff^le in the presence of the

the plague Black Death or of the economic or social distresses which

' had followed it. Neither party, however, had ceased

to intrigue; a bitter partisan strife, also, smouldered in Brittany,

where the question of succession was not yet settled ; open war

162 OPENING OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [bdwam)!!!

occasionally flickered up on the Gascon border. In 1350 the Spanish, probably incited by French intrigue, attempted a descent upon the English coast. Edward went out with his fleet, and in the brilliant victory of "L'Espagnols sur mer" off Sluys again vindicated his title of '*King of the Sea."

A week before this famous action Pliilip VI. had died and

John of Normandy had succeeded him. Edward announced his

willingness to yield his claim to the French crown

Uiewar^ms, ^^ J^^n would cede him Gascony in full sovereignty.

But John rejected the offer; and both sides prepared

again for the active renewal of the war.

Edward planned to strike France in three different places at

once. One army was to land in Brittany and assist Montfort, a

second army led by the king was to descend upon

Nfyrthem Normandy. Nothing, however, came of either of these

expeditions, and Edward returned shortly to repel a

new invasion of the Scots.

In the meantime the third expedition, under Edward, the ** Black Prince," the king's eldest son, had landed at Bordeaux CamvaioM *^^ begun a systematic plundering of the valley of the 'i^rincc^^ Upper Garonne. Hi^ success led the prince to repeat 2366, 1366. i]^q expcrimeiit the next year on the Loire. In 1356, therefore, he advanced across Poitou, ravaging the countryside and leaving a desolate wilderness behind him. Four miles from Poitiers ho was confronted by John in person with a French army which outnumbered the English seven to one. As at Crecy, the English dismounted their men-at-arms and upon rising ground, with their flanks protected by the terrible archers, awaited the attack. John advanced with the great part of his men-at-arms also on foot and drawn up in three battles. He was a better soldier than his father but he was outgeneraled by Edward and his men were outfought by the English. The battle opened at nine o'clock; by noon John was a captive in the tent of the Black Prince and his vast army a rout of scattered fugitives.

The case of France was now pitiable enough. The disaster of

Poitiers had come, not at the close of an era of prosperity, but

after Mteen years of as bitter and cruel war as has ever desolated

1858,1859] THE WAR RENEWED 163

western Europe. The best of the nobility had been slain or taken; the king was a prisoner, and the goyemment demor- alized. The Dauphin, who was hastily appointed Pt^tcn!^^^^ regent, was an untried youth, his magnificent ability as yet unknown, and men feared to trust him. The riffraff of the two armies that had fought at Poitiers, troops of disbanded soldiers, infested the highways, and forming themselves into "free companies," fastened upon the countryside, living "by plunder and rapine. The knights and nobles, also, who had been captured in the battle, having bargained with their captors for their ransom, returned to wrest the money from their peasant tenants, already distracted beyond measure, by present sufferings. The wildest disorder prevailed. In 1358 the peasantry, the Jacquerie^ rose against their lords, and to the fierce plundering of a lawless soldiery, the attacks of the English, and the destitu- tion and misery which had followed plague and famine, were now added the yet deeper horrors of a servile war. The regent sum- moned the States-General, but only to increase the confusion by precipitating a war of classes, — the nobles and clergy against the Third Estate.

In the meantime John had agreed to cede to England the entire western seaboard of France including a district nearly equal in extent to the original Angevin dominions. But newc±mt ^^® Estates were in no mood to accept terms so humiliating, and promptly rejected them. Edward prepared for a renewal of the war. He first, however, took advantage of the death of Edward Balliol to put his relations with Scotland upon a more secure basis by releasing David, who had been in captivity since the day of Neville's Cross, and acknowledg- ing again the independence of the kingdom. In 1359 Edward was ready to begin operations on the continent, and with an army of one hundred thousand men started from Calais to march upon Eheims with the idea of having himself formally crowned king of France. The campaign, however, was a disastrous failure. Edward waited before Eheims until January, when hunger compelled him to withdraw. He then turned upon Paris where he fared worse than at Bheims. Finally at the earnest entreaty

164

SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS* WAR [bi»wa»IIL

of Pope Innocent VI., the Dauphin consented to sue for peace; but it was not until Edward had been fairly driven off by famine and had begun his retreat toward Brittany.

The messengers of the regent, following the trail of starving men and horses, overtook Edward at Chartres. Edward was ready for peace ; he could no longer blind himself to the vanity of attempting to unite the two crowns, and agreed to renounce all claims to the throne of France and to the ancient possessions of his house north of the Loire. The French king was to renounce on his part all suzerainty over the lands south of the Loire which had once belonged to Eleanor. Ponthieu with Calais were also to be ceded in full sovereignty to the English king, and John was to bo ransomed for 3,000,000 crowns. The treaty was signed at Bretigny, near Chartres, May 8, 13G0.

CHAPTER III

THE DECLINE OF EDWARD III. SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED

YEARS' WAR

EDWARD JIL, 1360-1377

The last years of Edward lll.'s reign were full of trouble. Edward himself was called upon to pay the penalty wliich nature so often exacts of prematurely developed mental and deriimof physical powers; he was an old man long before his time. The brilliant successes of the war, moreover, had encouraged the baser elements of a nature which was by birth mean, selfish, and shallow; nor could the glamour of court pageantry long hide the spuriousness of his character from the people, or conceal the fact that their glorious Edward was fading into a contemptible little old man, decrepit in body, small of soul, and weak of will, the prey of politicians and court parasites.

The Treaty of Bretigny proved a complete failure as a basis for a permanent peace. The French people, sore burdened and distraught, could not raise the enormous ransom which had been

lit.		1
m
1^	/f^.1>,<^

- -'^^

E^HaMta

3907J PEDRO THE GRUEL 166

pledged for the return of their king, and left him to die in exile.

The other terms of the treaty also were never carried out. Edward

had promptly organized the newly-acquired territories

the Treaty as the Duchv of Aquitaine and had installed the

of ^etigny.

Black Prince as duke, but the French king had never formally renounced his sovereignty, neither had Edward renounced his claim to the French crown. The old struggle, moreover, had continued to rage in Brittany, and when in 13G5 a crushing defeat of the French party definitely settled the suc- cession in favor of John de Montfort, a new storm center suddenly developed south of the Pyrenees, where the Castilian nobles by the support of the French had driven out Pedro the Cruel and established his brother, Henry of Trastamara, in his stead. The Black Prince received Pedro at Bordeaux and in an evil hour persuaded Edward and the English parliament to take up his cause. In 13G7 he penetrated the Pyrenees, defeated Henry and his allies at Navarrete and reestablished the ferocious Pedro in Castile.

The next year Henry returned to Castile, caught Pedro in a trap and slew him, and thus the matter ended as far as the civil

war in Spain was concerned. But not so the Black ^J^J?** Prince; in order to pay off his soldiers he proposed

the levy of a hearth tax upon his new duchy. The nobles resented the measure and appealed to the new king of France, Charles V., to protect them. Charles, always wise and Bore-footed, waited a year, and then resuming the overlordship of Aquitaine, summoned the duke to Paris to answer the complaints of his vassals, and when the prince defied him, he sent back a declaration of war.

The English soon found that they had a new kind of antagonist to deal with in the young French king; a man who despised The French chivalry and its nonsense, and saw no glamour in war; mS^cST'' whose bodily infirmities forbade him to lead armies, 0/ war. but who knew men, and from the quiet seclusion of

his castle, with unerring wisdom observed events and selected his instruments. The French king saw. moreover, that in any campaign upon his own territory the invader must sooi\.^t ^T\a^T

166 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAB [eowamoHSL

retire baffled and beaten, if only he could bo prevented from fight- ing battles. He also fully realized the uselessness of continuing to pit feudal levies against the trained soldiers of Eugland, and steadily substituted the professional soldier for the feudal knight; placing in command not his dukes and counts, whose claim to preferment rested merely upon their social alliances, but trained warriors like Bertrand du Guesclin, men who were conspicuous for tried abilities rather than for high birth, and who thoroughly understood their business of war.

In 1370 the French entered Aquitaine; the Black Prince with shattered health and wasted treasury, the results of his Spanish

campaign, with the country largely in sympathy with recotuiuest qf the invaders, could only look on, while the disaffected

towns opened their gates and received French garrisons. But when the episcopal city of Limoges surrendered, he roused himself from his sick bed in order to retake it. Xo mercy was shown to the unfortunate inhabitants ; men, women, and children were put to the sword. The recapture of Limoges was the last exploit of the Black Prince. The next year he returned to England a dying man.

In the meanwhile the prestige of the English continued to fade. Their power in the newly conquered provinces dis- integrated. Their armies marched hither and thither, but no battles were fought. Cities that consented to "blackmail" were spared; the rest were plundered and burned. A bitter hatred, fed upon such scenes as those of Limoges, took possession of the population and made them ready to receive even the ruffians who followed du Guesclin as saviors.

While this series of misfortunes was thus rapidly unfolding in Aquitaine, an even deeper gloom was settling upon the court at

home. Soon after the death of the good Queen Philippa Perren ^^ 13G9, Edward had become blindly infatuated with

a young woman of the late queen's household named Alice Ferrers, by whom he suffered himself to be led into the wildest extravagance. He allowed her to interfere in affairs of atate and even sit with the royal judges when she wished to influence their decisions.

FACTIONS OF THE COURT 167

The high offices of the state were in the hands of the clergy; but they had lost the sympathy of the people and had roused the Thefaetuma ^^^^^ hostility of the baronage, and particularly of iheduiu^ the creatures who surrounded the king. To this latter iMneoAUfr. dagg belonged John of Gaunt, Edward's fourth son. This powerful but unprincipled man had married Blanche, the daughter and heiress of Henry of Lancaster, and with the titles and vast estates he had also succeeded to the traditions of this ancient house. He was the recognized leader of the old conserva- tive wing of the baronage, and was in full sympathy with its narrow class feeling; he saw nothing to be commended in the rising power of the commons, and scoffed at the new ideas which had found lodgment in the constitution ; he did all that he could, moreover, to develop hostility to the clergy, begrudging their wealth, and claiming for himself and his friends a monopoly of the public offices of the kingdom. Such a man could never become a great popular leader. He was nevertheless an exceedingly dangerous man. A powerful reactionary spirit was everywhere quickening into action, and although no one credited John of Gaunt with any patriotic motive, he was allowed to put himself at the head of the reaction, confuse its real interests, and use its influence to further the factional strifes of the court.

Opposed to this Lancastrian court party was a second faction

of the barons whose natural leader was Edmund Mortimer, the

earl of March, the great-grandson of Roger Mortimer

^SmlfSi of Edward II. 's reign. He had married Philippa, the

^^'^j^j^;^^^ daughter of the late earl of Clarence, the king's thiiJ

son, and had the interests of his wife and son t maintain against the ambitions of John of Gaunt. He wi:^, therefore, the natural ally of the clerical party, represented by the chancellor, William of Wykeham, the bishop of Winchester, who as head of the government was the special object of the enmity of John of Gaunt and the favorites.

Independently of these factions of the court there had also grown up in the nation at large a vigorous and energetic party whose purpose was ecclesiastical reform ; who protested not against the church but the abuses of the church; not against the clergy

168 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED TEABS' WAR [edwaw lU

but against their nseless wealth, their extravagance, their worldly ambition, and heartless indifference to the sufferings of the poor;

not against the papacy as an institution, but against i^ri^arm f;}^Q interference of the pope in English affairs, and

the indirect taxation of the English church through the "provisions" which the pope was still in the habit of making

for his Italian servants. In 1351 parliament had passed Frli^yn ^^® Statute of ProvisorSj which made the recipient of immi^ ^mt * P^P^^ provision liable to imprisonment and forfeiture.

In 1353 the even more important Statute of Praemunire had directly attacked the appellate jurisdiction of the Boman Curia by making it a serious crime for any Englishman to appeal from the decision of an English court to a foreign court. In 1366, also, Urban V. had very unwisely put a new weapon into the hands of the reform party by making a formal demand upon the English king for the payment of the tribute which John had once pledged to Innocent III. The king submitted the pope's claim to parliament, and although parliament made short work of it by denying the right of King John to enter into any such compact, the discussion aroused was most unfortunate because it helped

to turn the eyes of the nation from the much-needed character of reforms within the church to the abuses which had tfte re/or™,. ^^^^^^ ^^ .^ ^^^ borderland where the interests of

church and state came into contact, and deflected the activity of the reformers from the moral to the political field, making such men as Wyclif the tools of John of Gaunt and the other politicians, who were bending all their energies to drive the churchmen out of the state offices and secure them for themselves. In 1371 the opposition believed themselves strong enough to open a direct attack upon the ecclesiastical oflBce-holders, and succeeded in securing the dismissal of William of Wykeham and his fellow ecclesiastics.

The new lay officials who took the place of the deposed ecclesiastics had to experience the common lot of a party long out of office when suddenly entrusted with a vast and delicate machinery, tlie safe management of wliich depends upon experience quite as much as good will. They had charged the ecclesiastical

ia72-1876] THE GOOD PAKLIAMEKT 169

ministers with sluggishness in the conduct of the war. To justify

the charge, therefore, they were bound to take the war in hand

and push it vigorously. But how should they secure the

FniluTt of

vientw money? They hesitated to tax the great landholding middle class or to lay hands on the goods of commerce. As astute politicians they shrank from mcurring the odium. of the class which controlled the parliaments. They turned, there- fore, upon the hated churchmen, and proposed to raise the money needed by a direct tax of 22s. 3d. on every parish of the kingdom, but taken from lands "which since the eighteenth year of Edward I. had passed into mortmain." The tax was subsequently raised to llGs. The churchmen naturally objected, and raised the cry that they were the objects of malicious persecution and were being robbed in the name of the state. A singular misfortune, moreover, attended the efforts of the new councillors to prosecute the war. The fleet which was raised with the money taken from the clergy, was lost at Eochelle in 1372. Then Edward led another fleet out of Southampton to be driven back again by adverse winds, and the next year John of Gaunt led an ill-fated expedition into the heart of France. In 1374 only Bordeaux and Bayonne in the south remained in English hands, and the council was glad to accept a truce, which remained in force theoretically until Edward's death. At home in the meantime, while EngUsh ships were sunk at sea and English soldiers were dying like flies on John of Gaunt's march across France, the court was openly parading its shame ; Alice Ferrers was allowed to traflSc in her influence with the king, and her favorites traded in the claims of his hapless creditors.

Mismanagement, extravagance, overwhelming failure, the scandals of the court, and the evident helplessness of the king, Thereactum, ^^ ^^®^ brought on the inevitable reaction. In 1376 the W^'^ D^ Black Prince came forth from his seclusion, and

Oooa Par- '

liamenL making common cause with William of Wykeham and the earl of March, put himself at the head of the opposition. In the parliament known as the "Good Parliament," which met in April, Peter de la Mare, steward of the earl of March, who had been elected speaker, proceeded with great boldness to dv&^^^ss^

170 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [bdwabdIIL

the mismanagement of the government, and demanded an account of recent receipts and expenditures before new supplies should be granted. A new council, also, was organized; William of Wykeham was restored and the duke of Lancaster was sent into retirement. The parliament then began a direct attack upon three members of the late council, Latimer, Lyons, and Neville, and also upon Alice Ferrers.

Before the sitting of the Good Parliament was concluded, the Black Prince died. His death at once brought forward the question of the succession. The parliament greatly Black Prince, feared the ambition of John of Gaunt, and entreated the king to bring them the little "llichard of Bor- deaux," the son of the Black Prince, that he might be formally honored as the heir to the crown. They also persuaded the king to strengthen his council by the addition of ten more members representing the popular party.

In July tlie Good Parliament broke up with the feeling that all had been done well; but the members had hardly reached Return of ^^eir homes before John of Gaunt resumed his old Oaunt^to place, Alicc Ferrers was brought back, the late speaker power. ^as arrested and put in prison, and a long list of

charges brought against William of Wykeham. The new members of the council, also, were denied a seat, and of a list of one hundred and forty petitions, embodying the grievances for which the Good Parliament had humbly sought redress, not one received the assent of the crown. In January 1377 a new parliament was summoned, packed to suit the ideas of John of Gaunt, and the work of the Good Parliament was speedily undone. The new parliament, also, wrestled with the question of supplies, and signalized itself by voting a poll tax of 4d, on all persons, male or female, over fourteen years of age, a kind of tax ''hitherto unheard of."

While the party of John of Gaunt were thus carrying things with a high hand in the council and in tlie parliament, con- vocation was preparing to take up the cudgels in defense of the church. The unjust attack upon Wykeham had roused the churchmen to strike back. They could not reach John of

1861-1377] JOHN WYCLIF 171

Gaant directly, but they could strike him by attacking his ally and supporter, John Wyclif. This remarkable man had first

appeared in Oxford as a student. He had soon made w^ScW^'^ himself master of the existing scholastic system and

won a reputation among the distinguished scholars of the university. He was also a controversialist of rare powers. Ho was by temperament witty and ever inclined to give a humorous turn to an argument; his mind was acute and well sharpened by long training in the methods of the scholastic philosophy. His personal character, also, was beyond reproach, and his genial,, sunny nature had won him many friends. In 1361 he had become master of Balliol. In 1366 he had boldly assailed the pope's claim of feudal supremacy over England, publicly defending the action of parliament in refusing to continue the annual tribute.

Two years later he had more formally set forth his Sip^riSS ™^s ^ ^^s "Theory of Dominion," the famous De

Dominio Divino^ in which he asserted that all right of dominion must depend upon true relations with God, -the supreme suzerain of the universe; that kings are vicars of God as truly as popes, and that the state is as sacred as the church. Such views had naturally attracted a man like John of Gaunt, who was not over-shrewd even for a politician, who, while failing to compre- hend the remote logical application of Wyclif 's theories in estab- lishing the responsibility of the individual and the liberty of the individual conscience, thought only of the support which the views of Wyclif would give to a party built up ostensibly upon the principle of opposition to the usurpations of churchmen in the state. Wyclif on his part had accepted the alliance, appar- ently, without question.

It was natural, therefore, that Wyclif should share in the opprobrium which had fallen upon John of Gaunt's government,

and that the clerical party should single him out for 'S^Sv^lf attack as a counter to the attack upon Wykeham. He

was accordingly summoned to appear before a com- mittee of bishops at St. Paul's in London. The trial, however, was not allowed to run its course. John of Gaunt and his friends, ostensibly in the interests of fair play, managed to precipitate a

172 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [ewwabd m.

riot; the court broke up in confusion and Wyclif was saved at least from a formal condemnation by the ministers of the church.

The attempted trial of Wyclif was held in February. On June 21, Edward III. breathed bis last, and with his death the Death of schcmes of John of Gaunt for the time came to an end. Juntnim' ^^ Edward's long reign a feature to be noticed of prime f&SwTM^ importance is the steady increase in the authority of Maretgn. parliament as a factor in the government. The Statute of York, 1322, had definitely established the right of the Commons to a share in the deliberations of parliament. Dur- ing the early part of Edward III. 's reign the knights dignity of of the shire began regularly to sit with the repre- sentatives of the towns and thus greatly enhanced the dignity and importance of the inferior house. The advance in the dignity and usefulness of the Commons, however, was only a phase of a general increase in the activity and authority of parlia- ment as a whole, largely a result of the Hundred Years' War. Increase in frequent sessions were necessary ; during long periods cnuhmitv^ the parliaments were virtually annual. The well- pariiamenL known shiftiness of the king, his frequent attempts to secure money contrary to the spirit of the laws as confirmed by Edward I., required the utmost watchfulness, and as a result of faithful persistence in holding the king to the paths prescribed by the laws, three very important constitutional principles, all bearing directly upon the authority of parliament, and all more or less clearly expressed in formal law, passed into definite practice : 1. No legislation could be binding upon the nation without the concurrence of both houses. 2. The king might not raise money by taxes, loans, or otherwise, without the consent of parliament; any such attempt on the king's part was henceforth illegal, and it was within the right of the subject to resist the king's officers who sought thus to take his property. 3. The king's ministers were directly responsible to parliament and might be impeached.

The reign of Edward III. also witnessed the beginnings of great social and religious movements which were to result on the one hand in the abolition of villainage in England and on the other in the complete severance of England from the grea<

EDWARD IIl/S BEION 173

European system represented by the papacy. Edward and his

ministers had little to do with the first of these movements, save

to accelerate it by their foolish Statute of Labourers.

Social and __ -. . j ni • i • • .•

reiiainua ^New Conditions made villainage no longer a paying msti- Edward tution and the landlord was forced to accept other rela-

TIT *M TfiOft.

tions to the laboring class. With the second of these movements Edward had much to do. The contiguity of the papal court to France, the undoubted French influence at Avignon, involved the popes even against their will in the hostility which a generation of war had bred in the breasts of Englishmen against the French nation, teaching them to look upon the papacy as a foreign institution. The continued demands of the papacy, its interference in the ecclesiastical affairs of England, also, opened the eyes of Englishmen to the real significance of the appellate jurisdiction of the pope's court and the claim of the pope to appoint to English livings. It was impossible, furthermore, for such a movement to stop simply with an attack upon the political authority of the pope. The abuses which had crept into the church were too widespread and flagrant, the sufferings of the people were too acute. Men were not lacking who dared to pro- ceed from institutions to doctrines, and question the foundations of the entire ecclesiastical system.

The reign of Edward III., further, is marked by a pronounced growth of the national spirit. The traits of nationality had begun to develop even before the Xorman Conquest and had continued in a steady and sturdy growth. Yet some elements were still lacking. The Englishman had a language of his own and the beginnings of a literature, but he had not learned either to respect the one or to love the other. The Latin had never yielded its place as the language of the church and the university. The pliant and nimble French had displaced the more uncouth English in the court and in the schools. William the Conqueror had tried to learn English, but with poor success. Other kings had not made the effort at all. Even Edward III. spoke English with difficulty. Ralph Higden, a writer of the times, deplores the custom of compelling English boys, against the practice of all other nations, to construe their lessons in. ET^\idci\ %i ^TMiVix^5Ri>

174 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS* WAR [kdwam) m.

which he declares had been followed since the Norman Conquest. French had likewise invaded the law courts and the parliaments. It had taken possession of tho shops and was fast becoming the language of trade and commerce. Since the beginning of the war, however, the hostility of the English toward the French people had extended to their language, and tho use of the foreign tongue had rapidly fallen off. In 1362 the people had become so unaccus- tomed to tho French that the law courts were ordered by statute to conduct their proceedings in English. In 1363 for tho first time, the chancellor opened parliament with a speech in English. The- vigor with which the English were turning to their own tongue again is further shown in the great literary creations of the

next reign which are associated with the names of terpieceso/ Wyclif, Langlaud, and Chaucer. Wyclif discarded

the ponderous Latin of the university and spoke directly to the people in the homely speech of the plowboy and the village smith: '*Let clerks enditen in Latin, and let French- men in their French also enditen their quaint terms, for it is kindly to their mouths, but let us show our fantaseys in such words as were learnden of our dames tongue." Innumerable tracts, but most of all his English Bible, masterpieces all of the simple, chaste English of the people in their best moments, show how well Wyclif kept to his pur2)ose.

Of William Langland little is known save his poem, **The Vision of Piers Plowman." Tho poem is a running satire of the

time, presented in the form of a vision or dream, in Langland. which in a plain '*full of folk," the dreamer watches

**Th6 Vigion

(^ purs ^^ the mad struggle for place and pelf, so unseemly in men of high calling. He deplores tho evil practices of the church; he beholds Lady Mead, — reward or bribery, — obtain- ing bishoprics for fools; he draws droll pictures of the hunting priest, lazy, jovial, hard-drinking, who comes to church just in time to hear the Ita missa est; but finds only severe words for the professional pardoners and the herd of knaves who traflBc in holy things. Yet he has no thought of doing away with the church, the hierarchy, or its doctrines, and only prays for its amendment from the pope down.

LANGLAND AND CHAUCER 175

The same wholesome sense, a desire for reform rather than revolution, is revealed in Langland's view of the political society of his day. His sympathies are with the people, yet there is place and need for all the great ones in the well-ordered England. The king is necessary as the head of the state to rule the Com- mons and '*holy kirke and clergy fro cursede men to defende." King and parliament are the law-makers; the knights defend the priest and the laborer; the merchant's wealth must restore the broken bridges and support the scholars. Even lovely ladies with their "longe fyngres" have their tasks with the needle. But supporting all, feeding all, is the humble plowman, Piers, bending to his daily toil, patient as his oxen. The teaching of the poem is wholesome and sound. The welfare of the state depends upon the harmony and mutual support of all classes. The great have their temptations which they may avoid by marrying Lady Mead to Sir Knight Conscience. Piers Plowman is not to be despised. He is the main support of the state. In his humble, unadorned, but honest life, free from the elements that lead other men astray, Truth finds a congenial home.

Unlike Langland, Chaucer is the poet of the court. The art and elegance of the French love-poets are his, in marked contrast with the unadorned alliterations of Langland. His spirit, moreover, is of the Eenaissance, nor does he hes- itate to draw his themes from Petrarch or Boccaccio. His sym- pathy is with the upper classes. He is neither religious reformer, nor social reformer. He boars no burdens. He loves life for its own sake, and sees in the foibles of those about him, themes whereon to make merry rather than to mourn.

His best known book is the ^'Canterbury Tales," written

probably in the later years of his life and left incomplete. He

brings together at the Tabard Inn in London, a com-

Imnf rSc?" P^^y ^^ °^®^^ ^^^ women from various classes of society, all bound on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the popular Thomas d Beckot of Canterbury. Here, then, in the stories and conversations of the pilgrims, as they lope along in the easy, rocking canter, the favorite Canterbury gallop, is the England of the fourteenth century in miniature; its dress, its foibles, its

176 * THE PEASANT REVOLT [riohabd U.

heart songs and its laughter, its meanness and its weakness. Here is the *'very perfect gentle knight," just returned from his bat- tles and adventures in the wars, accompanied by his squire; the sturdy yeoman, he who gave such good account of himself at Crecy and Poitiers, who with professional pride keeps his good bow like an experienced archer. There is also the hunting monk, who cares not a groat for the rules of his order; the mendicant friar, a sturdy beggar, '* wanton and men-y"; the summoner, whose fiery face is a terror to the children ; the pardoner with his wallet "brimful of pardons come from Rome all hot," who can rake in more money from a country parish than the parson can get in two months, an arrant knave who knows more than one trick of wheedling the coppers out of the purses of simple country folk. Then, too, there is the brighter side of church life; the gentle, dainty prioress is there with her courtly French lisp, her refined manners and tender heart; the earnest parson, poor, lov- ing, and self-sacrificing, the salt of^the church to keep it all from rotting. Of the learned classes, the physician, the lawyer, and the Oxford student are also there; other characters too, such as the merchant, the miller, the cook, the reeve, and finally the plowman, suggesting the inspiration of Langland, as the parson suggests Wyclif . These characters are not allegories or mythical creatures of the past, but the real men and women of the Eng- land of the fourteenth century, who bore its burdens and felt its sorrows; the men who fought out the Hundred Years' War, who caught the glow of the morning and made merry in the conscious sense of the new life which was at hand; a life which they could feel, but could not comprehend.

CHAPTER IV

THE PEASANT REVOLT. THE ATTACK OF THE KING UPON THE

CONSTITUTION

RICHARD IL, 1.1771399

The accession of Richard was the signal for a general recon- ciliation of all parties, and a fairly representative council was selected to conduct the government. It was in fact high time

1881] RISING OF THE PEASANTS 177

that the advisers of the young king awoke to the serious nature of the troubles which threatened the state. The sky was portentous with coming storm. The war with France had not only reign of long slnce ceascd to be profitable but had inflicted upon the people a constantly increasing burden of taxation. Inflammatory elements, moreover, were scattered every- where; the strife of landlord and villain was increasing in bitter- ness daily; the free laborer and the wandering artisan, under the Statute of Labourers, were treated as vagrants ; disbanded soldiers from the wars, broken in fortune and swelling with pride and mis- chief, wandered everywhere; begging friars, the newsmongers and gossips of the times, brought the news of the day to the humblest and added their own fiery editorials; incendiary priests, like John Ball of Kent, preached the rights of man to eager multitudes, and even dared to question the whole existing social order.

When, therefore, the ministry, driven to straits for money in order to punish the French for recent depredations upon the Eng- lish coast, resorted again to the new scheme of taxing KS^n^{ people by the head, it needed only the irritation cansed by the attempts of the officials to enforce col- lection to rouse the peasantry to desperation. The first outbreak occurred near Tilbury in Essex about the last week in May, 1381. A few days later trouble began in Kent. By June 10, the coun- ties of the lower Thames were up from end to end; manors were burned, manor rolls destroyed, and bailiffs, lawyers, and partic- ularly obnoxious landlords, hunted down and murdered in cold blood. Everywhere the same scenes of violence were enacted, though with ever changing variety in the grim details. Then, when the special objects which had roused the wrath of the people in their home districts had been destroyed, the mobs, maddened by their very successes and still unsated, from all the *'home counties" began marching upon London. The insurrec- tion in the meanwhile continued to spread. By the 19th of June it had reached Somerset and on the 23d it had reached Yorkshire. There were echoes even in distant Devon and Cornwall and in remote Chester, though the extent of the outbreaks here is not known.

aHi

178 THE PEASANT BETOLT [biobamd U.

On the 13th of June the insurgents entered London, and for three days the city lay in the power of the mob. John of Gaunt, fortunately for himself, had been called north by threat lAmdon, of uew trouble with Scotland, but his beautiful palace, the Savoy, was at hand and upon this the people first vented their wrath. The Temple, the Inns of Court, and other buildings associated in the popular mind with the hateful laws which they hoped to overturn, were fired, and all legal records destroyed that could be found. The jails, also, were opened and their populations turned loose to join in inaugurating the reign of terror. From arson and plunder the rioters soon passed to mur- der; seizing their victims in church and sanctuary, and dragging them forth to be dispatched in the presence of the applauding multitude. On the fourteenth, in some unaccountable way the people prevailed upon the guards to admit them to the Tower where the more obnoxious members of the council and. their friends were in hiding. A frightful massacre followed. Some were torn limb from limb. The chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, and the treasurer. Sir Robert Hales, were dragged out to Tower Hill and there beheaded to the delight of the jeering multitudes.

The government apparently was smitten with the paralysis of panic and could do nothing to protect its friends or even defend itself. Walworth, the mayor of London, showed some spirit, and in an altercation with some of the leaders of the people held at Smithfield, in the presence of the young king, cut down Walter Tyler, the famous "Wat Tyler" whose name has sometimes been given to the rising. The people were finally quieted, but only by pledging them in the king's name that they should never again be "held for serfs," and by promising a general pardon.

With the collapse of the revolt in London, the excitement in other places also rapidly subsided. Then followed the reaction, ^^^ as strong and bitter as the rising. The boy king's counsellors easily persuaded him that he had no right to grant the charters of emancipation, and he forthwith revoked them. Then the agents of the law went to work, and those who had in any way borne a conspicuous part in the recent rising, were hunted out by the hundreds and punished with that pitiless

BEOLIKE OF TILL AIN AGE 179

brutality which has always marked the dealings of the master with the serf, when the serf has dared to turn. Parliament, also, lent its aid to the work of repression and passed still more severe and unjust laws against the villain.

Such measures, however, were futile. Villainage was no longer a paying institution. The enlightened conscience of the

nation, moreover, had begun to rest uneasy under a ^^^ sense of wrong done, of unjust burdens imposed. The

landlords had for once gazed into the abyss; they had learned the latent strength of the landless; they did not care to provoke a second rising. Old forms of servitude were gradually allowed to lapse. The severer laws became a dead letter. Eman- cipation went on again in the natural order; service was constantly commuted for money payments. The smaller freeholders steadily increased ; wages kept rising, and with the rising wages the com- forts of the laboring class also increased. At the outbreak of the Beformation villainage continued to exist in England, if at all, only in the more remote corners which had not yet felt the touch of the new life of the nation.

Thus began and ended the famous Peasant Revolt. In general the poll tax seems to have been the immediate occasion of the

rising; but back of the poll tax was the Statute of vteri^. Labourers, and back of that was a long story of

unrequited wrongs, differing in detail in each locality, but common to all in the hatred which it breathed for the great proprietors, whether priest or noble. Beyond the special griev- ances which the people cherished against their landlords, there seems also to hare taken shape in the popular mind some sort of confused belief that the counsellors of the king and particularly John of Graunt were responsible for the mismanagement of the government, the Statute of Labourers, the poll tax, and all the troubles which had ensued. Their first cry for vengeance, there- fore, soon passed to a very definite programme of political and social reform. The poll tax was to bo suppressed; the Statute of Labourers repealed; the boy king, to whom the people were touchingly loyal throughout, must be rescued from the hands of his evil counsellors and better government secured; and finaHy,

180 THE PEASAKX REVOLT [ricrau te.

yillainage was to be abolished by the granting of complete eco« nomic and personal freedom.

The rising took hold of the lower classes, but was by no means confined to the serfs. In Kent there were no villains, and yet the Kentish rising was the most serious and destructive of th??S<rw. ^^y- ^^^ populace of the cities were deeply inter- ested and at the first many of the city officials, as in London, were in more or less sympathy with the insurgents. In East Anglia, for reasons unknown, even gentlemen were to be found in their ranks.

It was inevitable that the reaction which followed the Peasant Revolt should affect seriously the religious reform which is asso- ciated with the name of Wyclif. Soon after the death wvcurs of Edward, Wyclif had retired to Lutterworth where the crown had presented him with a living. Here he had devoted himself to the work of disseminating his religious views, beginning the famous series of tracts in the simple, homely English of the people. It was in connection with this work, also, that he began that other greater work, his translation of the Scriptures, 'Hhe first specimen of literary English prose written since the cessation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." Wyclif 's views of Christian doctrine, also, advanced rapidly. He was no longer content to attack simply the abuses of the church, but began to assail its fundamental doctrines. He not only accepted the Bible as the sole authority in the church, but also declared the right of the individual to interpret it for himself, even against the authority of the fathers or the councils.

The promulgation of these views of Wyclif was contemporary with the insurrection of the peasants, and men in their excite- ment failed to distinguish between the missionaries of ^wantRt- ^ycli^ ^^^ such fiery agitators as John Ball. They SSm^rtti/ accused them of sympathizing with the peasants, and ^aSiJnfl« made the teachings of Wyclif responsible for the excesses of the insurrection. Thus the proprietary classes, who had heretofore favored Wyclif, began to confoimd the cry for church reform with the cry for social and political reform. The enemies of Wyclif, taking advantage of the reac-

1883,1384] TROUBLES OF THE COUKCIL 181

tion, in a synod held in 1382, known as the ** Council of the Earth- qoake," succeeded in branding as heretical twenty-four conclusions taken from his writings, and drove his adherents out of Oxford. Further than- this they could not go. They tried, however, to get Wyclif to Borne, and brought a summons from the pope; but Wyclif's prudence, his interest in his great work, as well as his failing health, kept him quietly at Lutterworth where he died in 1384. After his death his doctrines continued to spread, and many of the nobility embraced his views, the young wife of the king, Anne of Bohemia, being among the number. In London particularly, the Lollards, as the followers of Wyclif were now called for reasons unknown, increased so rapidly that it was said when five men met. on the street corner three of them were sure to be Lollards.

The council, in the meantime, was wrestling with its own problems. The French, having driven the English out of Aqui- New trouble ^^^®> ^^^ turned their attention to the overthrow of /j^^'JJ?^^ English influence in the Low Countries. The burghers 1382. of Flanders under Philip van Arteveldt, the son of

Edward's old ally, were again at war with their count. But the English council moved so slowly that they allowed van Arteveldt to be beaten in three successive engagements, in the last of which, at Eosbecque, he was slain. When the news reached England the consternation was great. The vast commercial interests of England in Flanders were in jeopardy and the loss of Calais was imminent.

In their extremity the council then sought to make capital out of the ecclesiastical quarrel known as "the Great Schism," which had divided ecclesiastical Europe into two hostile ^new^cru- camps. Clement VII., who had been elected by French influence, ruled at Avignon, while Urban VI. ruled at Eome. The English council encouraged the warlike bishop of Norwich, Henry de Spencer, to undertake a crusade against the French supporters of Clement in the Low Countries. Parliament also gave its sanction and from all sides recruits flocked to the holy war. The expedition, however, accom- plished nothing, and the leaders returned in disgrace. Flanders fell under the direct control of the French, and the English

182 THB PEASANT REVOLT [ricuabd IL

merchants at last were compelled to face the min of their Flemish trade.

Richard was now in his nineteenth year and beginning to fret under the imperious ways of John of Gaunt, who, while not per- . Bonally a member of the royal council, was neverthe- Oaunt leaves less represented by powerful friends, and had never hesitated to exert his influence. The constant quar- reling of the duke with his nephew, however, had destroyed what little respect men still felt for the once powerful noble. Leading members of the council, also, regarded his influence as a menace to the prospects of their favorite, Roger Mortimer, and deter- mined to expel his friends. It was evident to all, to none more than to the duke himself, that his game of politics at home was up for the present, at least, and ho determined to set out on a madcap errand to secure the crown of Castile. lie had married for his second wife the eldest daughter of Pedro the Cruel and now proposed in his wife's name to unseat the successful rival dynasty. He left England, therefore, in 1386 and did not return again for three years.

If Richard and his council thought to strengthen their posi- tion by the expulsion of John of Gaunt's friends, they soon found that they were seriously mistaken. For two new men of anew were now brought into solitary prominence: Thomas, duke of Gloucester, John of Gaunt's youngest brother, a man fully as unscrupulous and even more dangerous, who had no ugly memories back of him; and John of Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, the earl of Derby. The withdrawal of John of Gaunt made possible, also, a union of the old Lancas- trians with the old clerical party. A new party was thus formed, composed of the various dissatisfied elements of the upper classes, who now affected to } ose as the defenders of the rights of parlia- ment against the king and the council, which of late had been largely controlled by the favorites, Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the burgher's son, who in 1383 had been made chancellor, and Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, young, gay, and reckless, the boon companion of the king in his pleasures, who in 1385 vas made marquis of Dublin and in 1386 duke of Ireland, thf

1386.1387] THE LORDS APPELLANT 183

dacal title having been heretofore reserved for those of royal blood.

An opportunity was soon afforded the new party for a direct attack upon the hated favorifces. In the early part of 138G, the

people were thrown into a spasm of alarm by a genuine the ccuncti, war scare, due to the gathering of an armament in the

harbor of Sluys for the purpose of a descent upon Eng- land. Although the French soon abandoned the plan, popular apprehension had been wrought to fever heat, and when parliament met, the leaders were inclined to make the government, particularly de la Pole, the chancellor, responsible for all the reverses of the past ten years. The recent promotion of de Vere was also a source of irritation. The new parliament, therefore, was in any- thing but a tractable mood, and soon gave evidence of its spirit by demanding the dismissal of the chancellor. Eichard was forced to yield. Suffolk was impeached, fined, and imprisoned. A com- mission of regency, also, was appointed to control the administration and the king saw himself virtually deprived of his royal authority. The old Plantagenet spirit, however, was now fairly aroused. After parliament had adjourned, Richard released Suffolk and

summoned a meeting of the sheriffs and justices of ^ffpariia- the kingdom at Nottingham. He urged the sheriffs to

allow no knight to bo sent to parliament **save one whom the king and the council chose." He asked a committee of judges, also, to pass upon the legality of the acts of the last parliament, and without a dissenting voice, apparently, they declared that the removal of the chancellor and the appointment of the commission were unlawful, and that those who had forced the king to yield against his will were liable to the charge of treason. The leaders of the opposition now in their turn became alarmed, and answered the charge of the judges by appearing at

the head of an army of 40,000 men. Richard thought Appellant.'* of resistance, but the prompt action of his enemies Bridge, Dee, entirely disconccrted him. London opened its gates,

and five lords, Gloucester, Derby, Arundel, Thomas Beauchamp earl of Warwick, and Thomas Mowbray earl of Nottingham, entered the king's presence and **appealed of

184 THE PEASANT REVOLT [biobabdIL

treason'^ five of his late councillors: de Vere, de la Pole, Robert Tresilian the chief justice, Sir Nicholas Bramber, and George Neville archbishop of York. In the meanwhile the enemies of Gloucester had fled from the city in various disguises. De Vere went into Chester and succeeded in raising an army of 5,000 men. In December he approached London, but was met at Badcot Bridge on the Thames by Derby and Gloucester, and his little army dispersed. He himself escaped by swimming the river, and finally got away to Ireland.

The parliament, known sometimes as the '* Wonderful Parlia- ment," and sometimes as the "Merciless Parliament," met in Feb- ruary, 1388, and in a session of 122 days devoted itself ftaPariior to ridding the country of the enemies of Gloucester. Then after Richard had been stripped of all his earlier advisers even to his private confessor, the parliament broke up and left the government in the hands of Gloucester and his friends.

For some months Richard quietly submitted to the new order,

but at a council meeting held in the following May, taking

advantage of the fact that he had recently come of

Richard OS' . t • t i • ^^^ -I

ntmes the gov- age, he dismissed his councillors and once more assumed direction of the government. Apparently he had learned something from his earlier misfortunes, for he adopted a policy which was surely moderate for a man of his character. He refused to recall de Vere or the exiled judges. He installed William of Wykeham in his old position as chancellor. York and Derby, also, were retained. Richard was still further strengthened by the return of John of Gaunt the same year, who, although as unpopular as ever, had been apparently sobered somewhat by his many failures and now sincerely tried to serve his young sovereign.

The new reign was now fairly launched. The young king was not without elements of popularity, ani confidence rapidly returned. For eight years Richard fully justified the p^iSnSrvic ^^P®® ^^ ^^^ people; no king could have done better. A new series of truces gave some respite from the burdens of the French war, and enabled the ministers to reduce taxation. Wages continued good and prices steady. New safe*

1894-1896] EXTRAVAGANCE OF RICHARD 185

guards, also, were added to the Statutes of Provisors and Praemu- nire. The Statute of Mortmain was enlarged to forbid the granting of estates to laymen in trust for religious houses, — a practice by which the older statute had been virtually rendered a dead letter, Bichard while quite young had been married to Anne of Bohemia. He seems to have loved her devotedly and even to

have allowed her considerable influence when once he ??or*JJ!lS^* was his own master. But in 1394 Anne died, and as

Richard was still childless, Roger Mortimer earl of March was formally recognized as heir to the throne. The year of the queen's death also saw the death of Constance of Castile, the second wife of John of Gaunt. He at once married Catharine Swynford, a sister-in-law of Chaucer, who had already borne him several children. These children and their descendants, known as the Beauf orts, will bear their full share in the dynastic struggles of the next century. In 1396 Richard succeeded in making a truce of twenty-eight years with France. He then went to Paris and amid great pomp married Isabella, the eight- year-old daughter of Charles VI.

The marriage was not a happy one for king or people. For two generations Englishmen had known little of the French

court and its ways; but now its splendors, great even pf^l^^cwtrt ^h®" emanating from so feeble a personality as Charles

VI., burst upon this young king, who saw at last a realization of his early dreams of kingly power and could not but compare his own slavery to insolent parliaments and obstinate ministers, with the freedom and magnificence which tradition and custom assigned to a French monarch. It was a dangerous dream, for Richard's temper was none of the steadiest and had already led him into unseemly outbreaks.

The first effects of these new ideas of kingly dignity were noticeable in a very marked increase in the magnificence of the

trappings of court life. Richard, like his grandfather, camniSM*^^ set the pace in foppish extravagance, paying, it is

said, as much as £10,000 for a single coat. The sober- minded burghers who were taxing themselves to keep up this show of kingly magnificence did not take to it kindly, and in

mtifmm^mmaiammtamtmtiumt^mtmmmtmmmmtmi^mmmaaitm

186 THE PEASANT REVOLT [bicbauIL

1397 the Commons presented to the Lords a formal complaint against the extravagance of the royal household. The Lords were more than half inclined to report upon the matter favorably, when news of it reached the king. Before his violent outburst of wrath both Lords and Commons gave way and humbly apologized, while Sir Thomas Haxey, the mover of the motion, narrowly escaped death as a traitor.

Richard thought he had learned his strength and determined to follow up his advantage. He was upon good terms with John of Gaunt; he was sure of the support of his half- Lords brothers, the Hollands, of Edward, the son of the

duke of York, and of Thomas Mowbray, the earl of Nottingham. In July, therefore, ho suddenly arrested Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick, and by means of a parliament packed with his partisans secured their punishment, and the reward of his supporters by grants of land and titles. The acts of the Wonderful Parliament were annulled. Older measures were called up, as the statutes against the Despensers, and wherever they abridged the king's authority they were repealed. Not content with this, as though they would put from themselves the temptation of ever pulling down the fine structure which they were raising, the parliament granted Richard the customs on wool and leather for the rest of his life. Then by a rare act of suicide the parliament delegated its authority to a committee of eighteen of the king's partisans, with John of Gaunt as president.

Richard at last was to have an opportunity to play the king after his ideals. Ho rode through the country, accompanied by a body of Cheshire archers, compelling nobles and gentry to take an oath to support the acts of the last parliament. Ue compelled merchants to make him loans. He placed blank charters before men who were known to possess fortunes and forced them to fix their seals, leaving him to write in the charter what he pleased. He levied blackmail upon the panic-stricken remnant of Glou- cester's friends by compelling them to buy their pardons. He even levied upon the shires as a whole, compelling seventeen counties to redeem themselves from the charge of assisting the enemies of the crown. The despotism of Richard reached ft

18671808] IRELAND 187

dimax in 1398 when in a freak of arbitrary wilfulness he banished Derby, now duke of Hereford, and the next year upon the death of John of Gaunt, declared the vast Lancastrian estates forfeited, and appropriated them to his own uses.

Bichard of course was not without some specious plea by which he sought to justify these acts of despotic power. For

more than two hundred years England had been 5?5J|^JJ^ wrestling with her Irish problem, and at the end of

the fourteenth century could show only a few districts about. Dublin, ^Hhe English P^e," so called, as the sole result of her endeavors to secure a footing in Ireland for English law. Neither English nor Irish could gain upon the other. Marauding forays, midnight alarm and slaughter, were events of daily life in this unfortunate land, and even when the two races showed a tendency to live on better terms, it was the policy of the govem- _ „, ^ ment to keep them asunder by foolish laws. Edward III.

The Statute , "^

of KUkenny, had made it a crime for an Englishman to acquire the Irish language, or to marry into an Irish family. Yet the laws of nature had proved stronger than the statute laws of England, and the change which had once taken place in Normandy and had again taken place in England, was steadily progressing within the boundaries of English Ireland. The descendants of the men who had come with Strongbow were merging in the subject race and becoming almost more Irish than the Irish themselves. In 138G Richard had sent Robert de Vere to Ireland, commissioned to complete the conquest and bring the Irish troubles to a close. But the Lords Appellant had defeated this scheme. Then the truce with France had enabled the king to turn his personal attention to Ireland. Little, however, had been accomplished because the English lords made as much trouble as the Irish princes, and the king could find no loyal party to make the foundation of an English rule. In 1398, the earl of March, who had been left in charge as lieutenant of the crown, was killed in battle, and Richard determined again to go to Ireland in person to avenge the fall of the heir to the crown, and try once more to bring order out of this wretched chaos. It was upon the plea of raising a force sufficient for this war that Richard had entered

188 THE PEASAKT REVOLT [bicbabd a

into the course of spoliations and confiscations that calminated in robbing Henry of Hereford of his family estates.

Richard, however, had at last overshot the mark. He had swept away the guaranties of the constitution which Englishmen

for three hundred years had been toiling to establish, of Hereford, and as long as the noble-bom politicians who had held

up his hands were allowed to share in the plunder of their fallen rivals, he might have remained secure in the conduct of his despotic government. But now by plundering the men who had made his usurpation of power possible, he forced them in self- defense to combine again in order to undo their work. Hence Richard had hardly reached Ireland when Hereford landed at Ravenspur, accompanied by a band of exiles as desperate and

determined as himself. As he proceeded south, the BMrea!^^^ latent discontent of the kingdom everywhere found

voice; the shires rose; London went mad in its enthusiasm. On July 29 three of Richard's councillors were taken at Bristol and put to death.

Richard's kingdom was now lost. He hurried back with the army which he had taken with him to Ireland, only to have it

dwindle in a single day from 30,000 men to 6,000. He of Richard, was taken to London and thrown into the Tower, and

on the 29th of September was compelled to set his seal to a formal abdication, declaring himself incapable of governing and willing to be deposed. When parliament came together on the 30th, Henry had the abdication ready and at once secured a formal sentence of deposition. Thirty-three charges were brought against the king; all serious and weighty, and bearing directly upon the great constitutional principles which for two hundred years had been struggling for utterance and now were at last to be heard. Then Henry stepped forward, and crossing himself, solemnly claimed the vacant throne: *'In the name of Henry of Goi, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this realm and eiainM*th!e ^^® crowu with all its appurtemmcos, as I am descended croum. |)y right line of blood, from the good King Henry

III., and through that right, that God of his grace hath sent me with help of my kin and my friends to receive it ; the which

1899] HENRY IV. 189

realm was in point to be undone by default of governance and undoing of good laws." The plea was accepted without a dissenting voice, and the two archbishops led the champion to the vacant throne. A great revolution had been carried out, and, an unusual thing in those days, no blood had been shed save of the three who were slain at Bristol.

Edward II. had failed because he had not taken his crown seriously. Bichard II. failed because he had taken his crown too seriously. He had been brought up in the atmosphere breathed by the degenerate court of Edward III. Its hollow magnificence, its pride, its extravagance in life and thought were to the boy mind realities. His tutor, Simon Burley, had taught him to regard himself as superior to men and to institutions. Ambitious and crafty uncles had played upon his weakness to further their own ends, and at last persuaded him to try his hand at high pre- rogative; and when he found himself confronted by wills every whit as imperious as his own, his temper, which was never under safe control, broke forth in a frenzy of despotic violence. Then it became necessary for the very men whose shortsightedness had made this exhibition of tyranny possible, to unmake their Caesar in self-defense. But in order to secure themselves and justify their treason, they were obliged to fall back upon the "good laws" which fiichard had repudiated, and call the nation to their support. Thus what had begun in a miserable quarrel of politicians, ended in a revolution of the gravest constitutional significance.

CHAPTER V

THE CONSTITUTIONAL KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. THE THIRD STAGE OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR

BSSRT JT., J399-1413

HENRY r., uia-itu

The new king was a man of fair abilities, naturally religious, temperate in habits, well balanced in temper. He was not cruel by choice; but he did not hesitate to shed blood if he could not

lUA

190 THIRD STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [hbi«t IV.

gain his end by milder measures. He was too good a politician,

moreover, not to see that the party in power could afford to be

generous and that excessive cruelty was certain to breed

The ermcO- ° _ _ .,«..* tt «

iatoru policy reaction. Hence the first acts of Henry's reign are,

for the times, remarkable for self-restraint. The lords who had stood by Richard and abetted his usurpations and shared in the plunder, were compelled to forfeit all that they had received from him in the way of titles and lands since the fall of Gloucester in 1397. Appe^s of treason in parliament were forbidden. A man charged with treason was henceforth to be tried in a regular court of law, and the crime limited to offenses specified by statute.

In January of the new year some of the old friends of Richard planned to surprise Henry at Windsor and raising the countryside

proclaim Richard. The people rose at the name of vou,Jan., Richard but not as the plotters had designed, for they

came together to support Henry, and whenever the conspirators fell into their hands they were promptly dispatched. The effect of the plot was threefold. It revealed the popu- larity of Henry among the people, and determined the uselessness The effect of ^^ attempting a counter revolution. It gave proof of acy^Mik ^^® hatred of the populace for the friends of Richard, of Richard, ^nd revealed to the survivors how little they had to expect if they too should fall into the hands of the mob. It also sealed the fate of Richard. The date and manner of his death, however, are unknown. A month after the conspiracy had col- lapsed, a body supposed to be that of the late king was exhibited and buried at Langley.

Henry had now triumphed over the friends of Richard, but his troubles had only begun. Since the recognition of David by

Edward III. in 1357, the English and Scottish kings and the ' had been generally on terms of peace; but it was

impossible for either king to restrain his fiery border lords, and their ceaseless raids had kept the neighboring lands in constant alarm. The battle of Otterburn, better known as **Chevy Chase," belongs to this period. The truce which Richard had made had expired in 1399, and since the French were once

18994402] OWEN GLENDOWEB 191

more menacing England it was very important for Henry that the neutrality of Scotland be secured. When, therefore, the Scots hesitated to pledge themselves, Henry at once crossed the border. He burned Leith and harried much country, but was forced to return without securing the object of his expedition.

The failure of the attempt to overawe Scotland was humiliat- ing enough, but the campaign had not yet ended when a new storm broke on tlie Welsh border, where a Welsh land- qf Owen owner, Owen Glendower, had headed a revolt of the

Ql£ndower.

Welsh against their English lords, and by assuming the title of Prince of Wales, had given to the insurrection the dignity of a national rising. All Henry's efforts to reduce Glendower proved futile. The Welsh retired into the mountains, and from inaccessible crags defied the English until the approach of winter compelled them to withdraw. Then Henry turned the borders over to Henry Percy, whose experience and success in this kind of warfare in the north, where he had won the name of "Hotspur," peculiarly qualified him for such work. But Hotspur found his match in Glendower. He could not protect the open country and held even his castles with difficulty. In 1402 Glendower defeated Edmund Mortimer, brother of the late earl of March, at Brynglas and took Mortimer himself prisoner. Henry again took the field, but after an inglorious campaign of three weeks, completely baffled by his wily foe, he was glad to get his famished army out of the wretched country.

In the meanwhile, in marked contrast with these humiliating experiences of Henry, the Percies had won a brilliant victory over ^ ^ the Scots at Homildon Hill, capturing Douglas and

ingofthe Murdoch Stuart, the earl of Fife. This victory

Percies, U02.

delivered the northern border, but soon brought fresh trouble for Henry. The Percies had heretofore been among his Btaunchest supporters. They had been the first to rally to his standard after the landing at Ravenspur. For two years they had borne the brunt of the border wars; they had fought Henry's battles with their own retainers and had poured out their treasure to the extent of £00,000. Henry had repaid two-thirds of this debt but the balance of £20,000 still remained, and although the

192 THIBD BTAOB OF HUKDBED TBABS' WAB [HBvn IV.

condition in which parliament kept the royal treasury made a further payment impossible, the Percies were inclined to hold the king responsible, and ascribed his backwardness to the fact that he did not appreciate their services. Homildon Hill, also, had turned the Percy head somewhat, and when the king refused to allow Hotspur to ransom Edmund Mortimer, who was his wife's brother, the Percies in their anger entered into a widely extended conspiracy for the overthrow of Henry, in which Douglas, Mortimer, and Glendower, were all to take part. Under the pretext of invading Wales, Hotspur led his border raiders into Cheshire where he at once raised his standard, publicly charging Henry with the murder of Richard and further accusing him of breaking his word in collecting taxes contrary to law and of interfering in the election of the parliament; he also proposed to make his little nephew, the earl of March, king. The Cheshire men, who had always been loyal to Richard, rallied at Hotspur's

call and enabled him to march upon Shrewsbury at jidy^^I&\ the head of 14,000 men. Here the king attacked him,

July 21, 1403, and gained a complete victory. Hotspur's head was set up on London Bridge and the people were allowed the satisfaction of gazing at the ghastly trophy for a month. Hotspur's father, the old earl of Northumberland, surrendered at York as soon as he heard of the results of Shrewsbury. Henry's troubles with his barons were by no means ended. The experience of Hotspur had taught them caution, but they The second ^®^® more dangerous because they worked in secret. Percie!!^^^ Henry, however, was on his guard, and in 1405 foiled 1405-1407. an attempt to carry oflE the earl of March, whom he was safegaarding at Windsor. This attempt was speedily followed by a second rising of the earl of Northumberland, whom Henry had not only pardoned but restored to his estates. The rising, however, was quickly put down. Percy fled to France, secured

a promise of French aid, and in 1407 returned byway Sfwr'iSz. ^^ Scotland to invade his old territories at the head of

a Scottish force. But the Northumberland strong- holds were now all in the hands of the king and only a few of Percy's old tenants rallied at his call. He was overcome and slain

1406-1411] henry's FBENCH POLICY 193

at Bramham Moor. With the fall of Northumberland Henry's troubles with his barons ended.

The tide was now turning fast in the new king's favor. After an ineffectual attempt of the French to place the Welsh revolt

upon its feet again, the Welsh themselves saw the vraa^riina ^selessness of further struggle and refused longer to

support Glendower. Unlike the Scots, however, they refused to betray their chief and he was left to die a free man.

About the same time fortune placed the key to the Scottish situation also in Henry's hands. The young prince, James Stuart,

then a lad of twelve years, was taken by some English

Capture of /--r^ii i-rxi -ii-i i-i

James Stuart, seamen off i?lamborough Head and turned over to the

1407.

English king. Henry was delighted to hold so good a pledge for the future conduct of the Scots, and retained the lad in a sort of honorable captivity at Windsor.

The attitude of the French court to the man who had dethroned the son-in-law of the French king had never been friendly, and

Henry fully expected a renewal of the war. But the French growing imbecility of Charles VI. had left France a

prey to the rivalries of the two branches of the royal family, headed the one by Louis duke of Orleans, the king's brother, and the other by John duke of Burgundy, his cousin. As the quarrel developed and the nation was again plunged into civil war, it became more and more evident that the war with England would not be renewed unless the English assumed the offensive. But for this Henry had no mind ; he proposed rather to watch the turn of events and support the weaker party. At first he favored the Burgnndians and even sent a force to support them in 1411; but when the murder of Duke Louis of Orleans and the further successes of the Burgnndians, threatened to overwhelm the Armagnacs, as the rival party were called, Henry threw all his support on their side. It was a thoroughly selfish policy, but justified perhaps from a statesman's point of view.

Constant anxiety had very early begun to tell upon the strength of the king, and after 1405, he threw the burden of the administration more and more upon his eldest son, the gay and brilliant "Prince Hal." Next to the Prince of Wales, the most

Mb

194 THIBD STAGE OF HUNDRED TEABS' WAR [nnniv.

influential man in the kingdom was Thomas Arundel, the arch* bishop, who became chancellor in 1407. In the anomalous relation

of Prince Henry to the government, who as president ^Henrv^^ o£ the council was virtually regent during his father's

illness, it was inevitable that differences of opinion should arise, and in 1411 father and son came to an open rupture. In these jars Archbishop Thomas stood staunchly by the king; his opponent was Heury Beaufort, the king's half-brother, who on the death of William of Wykeham in 1404 had been raised to the see of Winchester. Beaufort was the close friend of Prince Henry. In 1409 the archbishop issued a series of constitutions which forbade not only the translation of the Scriptures without the approval of the bishop of the diocese, but all disputes as well upon the doctrines which the church regarded as established. The constitutions were aimed at Lollardy; but they brought Thomas into a quarrel with Oxford University, whose faculty objected to the restrictions which the archbishop proposed to put upon the intellectual life of the institution. In the quarrel the university, which was not without powerful friends, won, and the archbishop was forced to yield his place in the council to Thomas, the youngest of the Beauforts. For three years Thomas Beaufort held the chancellorship. But in 1412 the king reasserted himself; the prince and his ministers were dismissed and Arundel came back to power. The presidency of the council was committed to the king's second son, Thomas duke of Clarence. The next year Henry IV. died. The real interest of his reign centers in the fact that with him, for the first time, England had

a sovereign who accepted the English constitution as of reign ^ an established fact and honestly tried to conduct the

administration within the guarantees which the quarrels of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had transmitted to the fifteenth. His difficulties were real and serious. His income, about £100,000 all told, was entirely inadequate to the numerous and increasing needs of the government. Parliament doled out money by driblets, insisting always upon granting supplies for specific objects; annoyed tlie ministers by inquisitive auditing committees; and that it might be sure that its eternal grievance^

1401-1407] HENBY IV. AND THE CHURCH 195

receiyed the proper attention, it waited until the last moment before it proceeded to grant supplies at all. Yet Henry bravely faced the conditions under which he had accepted the crown, took his stand squarely upon the laws, and steadily refrained from using illegal methods in raising money, or in securing the ends of administration. He allowed parliament to control the appointment of his ministers and when satisfied that a minister no longer possessed the confidence of parliament, promptly called for his resignation. He also allowed parliament to regulate the expenses of his household. In 1407 he accepted the principle that money grants should originate in the lower house, in order that the representatives of the smaller property holders miglit fix the maximum. The right of conference of the two houses was also recognized, and the principle further conceded that neither house should report to the king until they had come to an agreement, .and then only through the speaker of the House of Commons. Thus, principles which had been sometimes recognized in formal law, and again as formally denied, came at last to secure the sanction of established precedent.

The same spirit which directed Henry in his dealings with parliament, directed him also in his relations to the clergy. He

not only protected them against the schemes of those (mdtke ' thrifty Commoners who could not understand why the

people should be so heavily taxed, when so much property, unproductive from the point of view of the state, lay in the hands of the church, but also took steps for the extirpation of the dangerous heresies which the clergy might well regard as responsible for the hostile attitude of the people. In 1401, statute de Archbishop Arundel secured the passage of the famous ccmSwfmdo Statute de Haeretico Comhurendo^ by which the bishop ^^ was given "authority to arrest, imprison, and try within

three months" a person accused of heresy, "and to call in the sheriff to burn him." So fully was Henry in sympathy with this measure, that he did not wait for the act to become law, but on February 26 had already sent orders to the mayor and sheriffs of London directing them to bum alive William Sautre, on that day con- victed of heresy by the Convocation of Canterbury.

196 THIRD STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [Rsnry.

The new king had long been the favorite of the people. He was tall, handsome, active, and delighted in feats of agility and ^ strength. He loved his frolic, also, and was the hero of 14131422.'* many a wild escapade in which some late returning burgher or the night watch was the victim. Hia pranks had caused his father many anxious moments, and some of the wise shook their heads in solemn apprehension of what might happen when this scapegrace of eighteen should become king; but the burdens of state, to which the young man had been called before his father's death, had apparently sobered him; Archbishop Thomas himself could not display more becoming dignity under the cares of office than he.

Henry V. adopted heartily the wise policy of magnanimous conciliation which had contributed so markedly to the success of his father's reign, and invited Arundel as well as the hI^%. Beauforts into his council. He honored the memory of Richard by bringing his supposed body from Langley to Westminster and giving it burial among the kings of England; he restored the sons of Hotspur and Huntingdon to their estates, and made the carl of March his personal friend. He also continued his father's vigorous support of Archbishop Arundel in the suppression of heresy, taking an active interest in the arrest and execution of fine old John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, whose influence as a member of the House of Lords and whose widely extended popularity had all but raised Lollardism to the dignity of a political party.

The new king, also, continued to humor parliament. He allowed the Commons to complete the valuable group of privileges whicli they had already secured, by granting the right andtnepar- of final engrossment. Heretofore the text of the laws had been left to the royal council to frame, and parliament bad often found itself defeated after it had secured the consent of the king, by some cunning framing of clauses by the king's ministers. This trick of the council had been the frequent subject of complaint and various remedies had been sought, but under kings like Edward III. or Richard 11. , every expedient had proved futile. In 1414, however, the Commons

ty 1» ^i. H

> - .^

1415] BEKEWAL OF THE WAB 197

snccessfully petitioned "that there never be no law made and engrossed as statute law, neither by addition or by diminution, by DO manner of term or terms, the which should change the meaning and the intent asked/'

English domestic troubles apparently were now at last settled. All parties had accepted the present order as final, and under its popular young king, the nation, united and prosperous, the French once more turned its face to the future. The truce which Richard had made with France had not yet expired, and there was no particular reason for renewing the war; but unfortunately for both countries, Henry believed sincerely in his right to the French crown. Ambitious, bold to a fault, with a distinct taste for military enterprise, with a young nobility growing up about him, restless and warlike, with England again united, strong and hopeful as in the early days of Edward III., with France ruled by an imbecile king, and shattered by the quarrels of her nobles, Henry V. was the man to court tempta- tion rather than put it from him. He was, therefore, hardly seated on his throne before he sent a demand to the king of France for the restoration of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and the parts of Gascony which the French still held. This was followed in April by a second demand in which he revived the English claim upon the French crown. He knew that his demands would not be granted and began at once to prepare for war. Parliament responded generously and heartily. It voted a tax of two tenths and two fifteenths and made over to the king the '^alien priories," that is the lands held in England by foreign monasteries. With these funds Henry began to collect a mercenary army. The unusual pay promised, the bounty ofl'ered, the popularity of Henry, the general conviction of the weakness of France, and the assurance of success, brought to his ranks *'the very pride of the country." A finer body of soldiers have rarely departed from the shores of England.

The troops were already gathering at Southampton, when rumor was brought to Henry of a conspiracy to carry off the earl of March to Wales and there proclaim him king. The chief plotter was Bichard earl of Cambridge, who had married Anne

198 THIRD STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [HnsT T.

Mortimer and represented his wife's interests as heir to the throne next after the earl of March. Cambridge and his fellow con- spirators were arrested and, upon confession of their Yin-iistpiot S^^^^» executed. The affair, as it turned out, was ol little importance of itself, yet it served to keep Henry in mind of the shadows which ever lurked about the Lancastrian throne.

Henry began his campaign on the seventeenth of August, 1415, by investing Harfleur, which surrendered after a siege of thirty days. The siege, however, had so wasted of Agincimrt, Henry's army that he dared not attack Paris, and he retired toward Calais with the idea of joining forces with his ally the duke of Burgundy. Near the castle of Agincourt he found the French blocking his way in overwhelming numbers. Henry's men were without food; to retrace their steps was impossible. He must either fight or surrender. Ho chose to fight. The result was a victory so brilliant, so overwhelming, that for the time even Crecy and Poitiers were cast in the shade. From Agincourt Henry returned to England to enjoy his triumph and to prepare himself to take full advantage of his victory. He raised the royal navy once more to its in N<>rmandy, old efficiency, and while the Burgundians and Arma- gnacs were fighting before Paris, began a campaign for the conquest of Normandy. His treatment of the conquered coun- try was firm but conciliatory. He came, he announced, to give peace to the land and save the people from the curse of civil strife. He forbade his men to pillage, or to abuse the peasantry. As city after city fell into his hands, it was a part of his regular programme to establish in each place an orderly government, and to assure the burghers of his purpose to give them a better protection than the French.

The steady advance of the English finally brought the French nobles to their senses, and led to an attempt to bring the duke of Burgundy and the court party together. A meeting was arranged to take place upon the bridge at Montereau between Duke John and the Dauphin Charles, who now represented the stricken king. But the hatred of the Armagnac for the Burgundian was deep

1419-1421] TREATY OF TR0YE8 199

seated; the blood of the duke of Orleans was still unavenged, and as the traitorous Burgundian knelt before the Dauphin in the _ act of renewing his oath of homaee, an old servant of

titjnqfDuke the duke of Orleans rushed upon him and smote

John of Bur- ,. 1,1 mi i 1, -r*

gundy, Aug., him to death. The breach between Burgundy and

Armagnac was now irreparable; the duke's son Philip, with all his following, including the great city of Paris where Duke John was very popular, again went over to the English, and the Armagnac court were compelled to accept such peace as Henry was willing to give them.

The peace was concluded at Troyes, May 21, 1420. By it the Dauphin was excluded from the succession. Charles VI. was to

remain king in name until his death: Henry was to rroy«, marry his daughter Catharine, be recognized as "heir

of Franco," and govern the kingdom as regent. Henry had now succeeded where Edward III. had failed. The crown of France was won ; his son after him should wear the crown of both nations. But Henry was about to commit the same blunder which Edward I. had made in dealing with the Scots; he forgot the people. If the French crown was won, France was not. The Dauphin Charles, who was by no means inclined to submit to the disinheritance prescribed by the Treaty of Troyes, had retired south of the Loire, whither in time flocked all the discontented elements of the nation. The Dauphin, frivolous, dissipated, and unworthy of the people's trust, was a poor leader; yet the people clung to him as their last refuge. He was thus strong in the very desperateness of his cause, nor were Henry's lieutenants a match for the seasoned warriors whom the

Prince now pitted against them. Henry's brother March 22, Thomas duke of Clarence was defeated and slain at

Bauge, and Henry himself was forced to hasten from Westminster to enter the field again in defense of his new crown. He drove the Dauphin south of the Loire and then turned upon Meaux. Hero he was compelled to sit down and wait seven months, while dysentery, the scourge of the armies of the fifteenth century, carried off his men. The only ray to brighten the tedious waiting of that long and fatal winter, was the news of the birtb

200 LAST STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [Hsnr YL

of a son, who was straightway christened Henry. On the 10th of May, 1422, Meaux surrendered; but Henry had little opportunity

Birth of ^ ^^^^ '^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ called north again by the gj^3[^-^ renewed activity of the Dauphin. On the way he was '^^ overtaken by the fell disease which had already laid

low so many of his people. He died at Yincennes near Paris, August 31, 1422.

CHAPTER VI

THE LAST STAGE OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. THE RIVALRY

OF LANCASTER AND YORK

HENRY VL, 1422-1461

The death of Henry V. left his two realms to a child eight months old. His brother John, duke of Bedford, a man of

sterling worbh and ability of high order, was appointed Henry VL, regent of France and protector of England. When

the duties of the regency carried Bedford to France, a second brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was to have the title and assume the duties of protector. Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, the great-uncle of the little king, was appointed to the chancellorship, where his personal worth and reputation for sound judgment did much to outweigh the mischievous influence of Duke Humphrey.

Two months after the death of Henry V., poor Charles VI., forlorn and unattended, passed away at his palace of St. Paul in

Paris. His death, however, changed in little the charU9 viL, outlook for the Dauphin, who possessed neither the

men nor the resources to enable him to compete successfully with the English regent. Yet he assumed the title of Charles VII. and kept up a court as gaily as he could at Bourges.

The first step of Bedford in order to strengthen the hold of the English upon the French crown was to form an active alliance with his two great vassals of Burgundy and Brittany. He then

1428,1439] JOAK OF ABO 201

began a series of vigorous operations against the strongholds of Charles north of the Loire. In the main the English were suc- cessfnl and in spite of the neutralizing inflnence of Duke Humph- rey's intriguing, after six years little was left to the French king in central or northern France. At last early in October, 1428, the English began the siege of Orleans, the Orleans, capture of which would deprive Charles of his last hold upon the Loire-Seine country. Early in the siege, Salisbury, who commanded the English army, was killed by a cannon shot. This was a serious loss to the English; yet the garrison were so completely demoralized that for tiie most part they simply looked on while the little army of Englishmen con- tinued to build forts and plant batteries about the city. In the spring the French outside of the city plucked up courage sufficient to attack a snpply train, which Sir John Fastolf was convoying to the English camp, but were beaten off with great slaughter. The supplies were mostly salt fish, hence the camp wits facetiously dubbed the encounter the ''Battle of the Herrings." This was the only serious attempt made by the French to interfere with the English during the first six months of the siege. The court was in despair; Charles gave up hope, and thought seriously of leaving Aquitaine altogether and seeking refuge in Dauphine or possibly even in Spain or Scotland.

Suddenly, from this their lowest ebb, the fortunes of France were raised again by the appearance of Joan of Arc, a simple peasant girl of Domremy, who believed that she had received a divine commission to save France. Early in 1429, accompanied by a few friends, whom she had convinced of the reality of her visions, she appeared at the court of Charles now at Chinon, and so impressed the advisers who surrounded the king, that they determined at least to try "the wondrous maid." The rough soldiers of the camp, however, accepted her at once as a messenger from God and from the depths of despair rose at once to the heights of enthusiasm. The men who a short time before could not be induced to face the enemy, now sup- ported by a courage born of their new faith, proved irresistible. The English on the other hand believed that this strange young

202 LAST STAOE OF HUNDRED TEARS* WAR [Hmcnr VL

woman in man's attire, who possessed such power in inspiring men, was a witch, an ally of the devil, and their courage melted accordingly.

In a short time the tables were directly reversed. It was now the English who could not be brought to face their foes. They were swept from position after position before Orleans, and on the 8th of May finally raised the siege. A few days later the earl of Suffolk was defeated at Jargeau; then Sir John Talbot was overwhelmed at Patay, and finally on the 17th of July, Joan stood by the altar in the great cathedral of Rheims, the ancient coronation city of the French kings, and saw Charles VII. crowned.

Thus, as if by a stroke from heaven, the edifice which the English had been so painfully rearing, had been once more thrown down. The next year Joan was taken by the Burgun- dians and delivered to the English. Tiie leaders, apparently thinking that they would vindicate their cause, had the poor girl tried and convicted of witchcraft by a court of Norman and Burgundian prelates. The crnel sentence of death by fire was carried out at Rouen, May 30, 1431. Then, to offset the coronation of Charles, they brought over the young Henry and had him crowned at Paris on December 17. The destruction of Joan, however, and the coronation of Henry were of little service. The work of the champion of France was accomplished, and although the French made little further progress for the next six years, the party that was supporting the English in the war both in England and in France was breaking up. The duke of Burgundy was wearying of the unnatural alliance, and after the failure of a peace congress which the pope had called at Arras in 1435, formally renounced his old allies and joined his forces to those of the French king. Paris rose against the meager English garrison, and for the first time in eighteen years the city passed under the control of the French national party. But more serious still for the English, scarcely three weeks after the meeting of the Congress of Arras, Bedford, worn out and broken-hearted over the failure of all his plans, passed away at Rouen. New leaders were brought forward in hope of finding a man who could

1442 1447] HENRY VI. 203

fill Bedford's place and lead English armies once more to victory, but only to emphasize by their repeated failure the hopelessness of the struggle.

In 1442 Henry VI. came of age. He was singularly pure in spirit, amiable, devout, and above all anxious to please. The hearts of the people turned to him with hope and ^jn/ yj' confidence ; yet they were doomed to bitter disappoint- ment. A more unfortunate king never reigned. During his minority he had clung to the venerable Cardinal Beaufort, and when failing health forced the cardinal to retire from public life, Henry had found a new support in William de la Pole, the earl of Suffolk. This de la Pole was the grandson of the old chancellor of Richard II. His father had fallen at Harfleur in 1415. Suffolk, with the real interests of the House of Lancaster at heart, urged upon the king the policy of an early marriage, and selected for him Margaret, the daughter of Ren6, duke of Anjou, count of Provence, and titular king of Xaples and Jerusalem. But what influenced Henry more than the father's titles, was the fact that the proposed bride was a niece of Charles VII. 's queen, and hence the marriage might prove a step towards a permanent peace. In 1445 Suffolk managed to secure a truce for ten years. The English agreed to withdraw the few garrisons which were still left in Anjou and Maine, and Margaret was sent over to England. The peace party was now in the ascendant. Parliament voted its thanks. Suffolk was made a marquis, and four years later a duke.

The marriage, as might be expected, was bitterly opposed by Duke Humphrey, who headed a vigorous war party. Humphrey, moreover, still kept up his opposition to the peace Gi'mcealar, negotiations until even Henry's patience was exhausted, and at the beginning of the year 1447, the king gave his councillors permission to arrest the troublesome nobleman. Five days later Gloucester was dead.

After the death of Gloucester, Suffolk proceeded in good faith to carry out the agreement which had been made at the time of the marriage contract. Here, however, he met a new obstacle in the English garrisons in France, who felt the soldier's reluctance

204 LAST STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS* WAR [HnnyL

to withdraw from a country which had once been won by the blood of their comrades in arms. Their commander Edmund

Beaufort, duke of Somerset, was too much in sym- renewed, pathy with their mood to restrain them, and allowed

them to yent their ill-humor upon the helpless inhab- itants of Fougdres. This act of , wanton savagery plunged the two nations into war once more, and at once brought all the planning of Suffolk to naught.

The council were now in worse trouble than if there had been no attempt to secure peace. Somerset could not hold his ground

with the meager garrisons under his command, and reverses, Suffolk could not strenirthen him. One by one his

citadels were wrested from him. In 1448 Le Mans fell, and in 1449 the great citadel of Rouen also passed into French hands. The recovery of Normandy by the French was now assured.

In England all control was rapidly slipping from the feeble hands of the council, whose misfortunes had long since lost them

the confidence of the people. The government was anarci^n virtually bankrupt, and without funds it could neither

reward its servants nor awe its foes. Confusion reigned everywhere. The barons despised the threats of the council, defied the courts, and with the feeling that troublous times were at hand, began hiring and arming retainers and form- ing military leagues with neighboring freeholders and knights; nor was it long before swords were drawn and blood was flowing.

At last the fatal year 1450 opened. In January parliament began a direct attack upon Suffolk. Henry attempted to save his ^^ old friend by sending him out of the kingdom. Suffolk

fatal year, left London with a howling mob at his heels, and

reaching the seaboard in safety set sail April 30, only to be overhauled, dragged out into a small boat, and murdered under circumstances of peculiar barbarity; the headless trunk was cast out upon the sands of Dover.

The government of Henry VI., now without a helmsman, was left to drift aimlessly under the shadow of the next great

1450j THE OADB BEBELLIOK 205

crisis of the year, — the Cade Rebellion. Kent and Sussex had been the most stirred by the loss of the French possessions; the The Cade population were given either to maritime pursuits or juruand manufacturing and had profited directly by the war. July, 1450. Their enmity, therefore, had been specially bitter against Suffolk and when a rumor reacbed them that they were to be held responsible for the murder, it was enough to set fire to the combustible elements with which this part of the country par- ticularly abounded. Once started, the movement gathered strength rapidly and soon all southern England was ablaze. Unlike the Peasant Eevolt, this was an uprising of the middle classes. The lesser gentry and the free yeomanry turned out with the unanimity and order of a military muster. At Sevenoaks they were set upon by a body of the king's men, but made so good a defense that they beat off the troops, slaying their captain. Sir Q!umphrey Stafford. A leader now for the first time appears, one Jack Cade, who called himself John Mortimer, professing to be a son of the late earl of March and to be acting in the interests of his alleged cousin, Richard the duke of York. Henry had found that he could not depend upon the muti- nous troops, and after allowing his treasurer Lord Saye, a sup- porter of Suffolk, to be cast into prison, abandoned ^•^Jg^a?^ his capital and fled to Coventry. Cade at once advanced upon London, proclaiming as the grievances which had called the people to arms, the loss of France, the heavy taxation, the extortion of the king^s officers, the corruption of the courts, the exclusion of the king's kinsmen from the council, and the interference of the ministers with the election of the knights of the shire. On the 3d of July the rebels were allowed by the citizens to enter the city. At first their conduct was orderly and businesslike. The hated treasurer, Lord Saye, and Crowmer, the sheriff of Kent, whose exactions in his county had been a chief occasion of local irritation, were drawn out of prison and put to death. At night the insurgents returned to Soath« wark. But on the 5th, their cupidity got the better of their judgment, and they began plundering the homes of the burghers. The Londoners, who up to this point had shown only good-will,

206 LAST STAGE OF HUNDRED TEARS* WAR [HnniTYL

were roused against the rioters, and after a severe battle on the night following finally got possession of the bridge, opened the draw, and closed the gates. The rioters wore now thoroughly discouraged; the more shrewd began to slink home, those who could, getting pardons. Cade, however, kept a small band about him and retired into Kent, where he was soon after overtaken and slain by the new sheriff. Outbreaks had also occurred in other eastern counties, as well as in the west in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. But with the death of Cade and the collapse of the Kentish rising, the other disturbances soon subsided.

The duke of York, the representative of the Mortimer claims to the crown, had been in the meanwhile quietly biding his time in Ireland, whither Suffolk had sent him to get him out Forfc^^"^ of the way. It does not appear that he had been implicated in any of the recent risings. He was altogether too shrewd a politician to trust his cause to such agents as Cade and the undisciplined mob who followed him. Yet any movement w^hich helped to impress upon the people the complete failure of the present administration, advanced by so much the day when he should be called upon to interfere and save the state. Reverses, also, were crowding upon each other in France. On April 15 an English army had been cut to pieces at Formigny, three thousand Englishmen slain, and the last hope of saving Normandy shattered. The fall of Bayeux and Caen and finally Cherbourg followed.

The next year the great English strongholds of Gascony, Bordeaux, and Bayonne also fell, completing the ruin of the lucrative crade which English merchants had spent three hundred years in building up in the southern duchy. The Gascons were not French; they had obeyed English kings as overlords since the days of Henry II. and regarded themselves almost as a piece of England. Their appeal for help roused the government to new activity, and for a moment the skill and energy of John Talbot promised to restore the English hold on the lands south of the Garonne. But in an unfortunate and ill-judged attack upon Castillon in 1453, Talbot managed not only to lose his own life but to wreck his army and

14514458] RICHARD OF YORK 207

prepare the way for the reentry of the French into Bordeaux three months later. With the second fall of Bordeaux, of all England^s conquests on the continent, only Calais and the outlying lands remained.

The news of Castillon very perceptibly deepened the gloom which had been of late overspreading the kingdom. The king was completely unnerved; the strain of insanity in his vartiatat blood began to assert itself, and to rnmors of deepen- ing misfortunes abroad was added yet this of the hopeless collapse of the king. It was evident that a protector must be appointed; but upon whom should the council thrust the thankless burden? The old Beaufort-Suffolk party had rallied around Queen Margaret, and Edmund Beaufort, the duke of Somerset, was their natural chief. But Beaufort was held respon- sible for the loss of France, and the news from Castillon, which had played so sorrily with the king's wits, had dissipated his last remaining influence. Just then he was the most generally bated man in England. 'Richard duke of York was the only other possible candidate. He had proved himself cautious and wise; neither could his nearest friends say that he had any designs upon the crown, or had other motives in seeking perferment than to serve the king and the state. His prominence among the princes of the blood naturally gave him great personal influence. He had, moreover, married into the powerful Neville family, who in the fifteenth century controlled one-third of the peerages of England, and, although at the time a bitter feud existed between the elder branch of the Nevilles and the younger, the younger branch, to which Richard's wife Cicely Neville belonged, was the more powerful. The birth of Prince Edward, October 13, 1453, also strengthened the duke's position, since, now that Henry VI. had an heir, the enemies of York need no longer fear him as a future sovereign. All parties, therefore, looked to Richard as the one man who could save the state.

In December, Somerset was seized and thrown into prison; York then assumed control of the government, replacing the friends of Somerset and Margaret with his own supporters. A few months later, in consequence of the continued illness of

308 LAST STAGE OF HUNDRED TEARS^ WAR [Hnsrn.

the king, he was formally appointed protector. York's position apparently was now very strong. Richard, the brother of Cicely York seizes ^ovil^©* was not Only the head of the younger branch SwCTwnwSJ* ^' ^^® Nevilles, he had also married the daughter of ^^"' Thomas Montague, earl of Salisbury, the famous

captain of Henry V., who had been killed before Orleans in 1428, and through her had succeeded to Montague's titles. His son, also a Bichard, had married the heiress of the Beauchamps, and had likewise succeeded to the important earldom of Warwick, and had become the greatest landowner in England, controlling the accumulated estates of the Beauchamps and the Despensers. He was an energetic, restless spirit, and combining with great wealth, personal talent, and energy of high order, the nature of an adventurer, was altogether a rare lieutenant ; he was the man to devise the most stupendous projects and carry them to a successful issue. With such supporters in the high places of state, York was able to begin a vigorous administration, and soon imparted a more hopeful aspect to everything that pertained to public affairs. His influence was strong enough to stop a private war which had broken out between the Nevilles and the Percies in the north. Everywhere the government was winning respect ; an era of confidence and peace apparently was at hand, when the recovery of the king, in January, 1455, released Somerset, expelled York and the Nevilles from the council, and brought back Margaret and her friends once more to power.

Thus far the Yorkists had conducted themselves with remark- able moderation and self-restraint for the times, and although The Wan of P^^J foel^i^g ^^^ bitter and the tension severe, there hcawi^Mav ^^^ °^ reasou why the counter revolution should be 14S5. marked by any more serious stop than the dismissal of

the Nevilles. Here, however, the anxiety of Margaret for the future of her son led her to take a most unfortunate step, which at once imparted a new and far more serious aspect to the rivalry of the two parties. The new council had hardly established themselves, when they summoned a parliament to meet at Leicester, an old Lancastrian town, "for the purpose of providing for the safety of the king's person against his enemies." The

	w		^srJi"	■
	9l	/ XnT	^V^
THIS	" uJn	iiAr \
	S E		fe
	J		WW-
"L-^s,-^
,-"	■■''".	M» *	/r:'

THX WAB8 or TBB BOSXS

1456] FIBBT BATTLE OF ST. ALBAKS 209

form of the unfortnnate call, as well as the place designated for the meeting, was taken by York as a threat. lie at once called upon Salisbury and Warwick to arm themselves, and the three Kichards marched upon London, "coming," as they proclaimed, "to conyince the king of the sinister, malicious, and fraudulent reports of their enemies." The Wars of the Roses had begun.

Somerset hastily gathered a force of 3,000 men, and, with the king in his train, advanced to St. Albans and took up his station The first within the city. The three Richards lay without the SLAiSanB ^^^y* ^^® ^^°S still hoped to end the matter without May 2^ 1466. bloodshed and opened a parley with the rebels; but York sternly demanded as the first condition of truce that his enemies be delivered to him, "to be dealt with as they deserved." The king refused, and the Yorkists at once attacked the town. Somerset was slain and his troops routed ; the king was powerless to make further resistance, and upon the return of his malady in the fall, York was again appointed protector.

The recovery of the king in January put an end to the second protectorate of York ; but the king's part in public affairs was only nominal and York's influence still remained protectfn-au dominant in the council. Warwick was made captain of Calais, a most important position, because it gave him virtually the command of the Channel. He made use of his position to carry on a vigorous course of privateering against Spanish, French, and Hanseatic merchantmen, and soon became the idol of the sailors and the merchants of the southern ports. The nation felt that the troubles were now over, and that the vigorous hand at the helm was a permanent guarantee of peace. Even the poor king tried to see things in a more hopeful light and proposed a great feast of reconciliation. A procession marched to St. Paul's, friend and foe walking hand in hand, Margaret and the duke of York following the king. The victors of St. Albans paid for masses for the souls of the men whom they had slain, and oaths of friendship were exchanged.

The farce of the reconciliation probably deceived no one save the kind-hearted king, whose generous nature failed to fathom the bitterness which separated Margaret and her enem^iea. Y^t

910 LAST STAGE OP HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [HmvTL

all might again hayo gone well had Margaret been content to let her quarrel rest. But the improved condition of the king Margaret 8^^® ^®^ ^®^ courage and she once more laid her SSJp^ plans ^ destroy York. Early in U59 she secured ror/t, 1469. the dismissal of the duke and his supporters from the council. In September she assembled an army in the king^s name and summoned Salisbury to London. Although the attack was thus directed at the Nevilles, York understood its real object and at once took the field. In September an attempt of Lord Audley to prevent the jimction of Salisbury and York at Blore- heath, resulted in a victory for Salisbury; but at Ludlow the Yorkists broke up in a panic when they found themselves con- fronted by overwhelming numbers. York fled to Ireland; his son Edward, earl of March, Salisbury, and Warwick, managed to reach Dover and get away to Calais.

Margaret's enemies were now scattered and the leaders driven out of England. The Lancastrians assembled in a parliament at Coventry and under Margaret's direction took measures, meat of as they thought, to make permanent the results of

November, their victory. For the first time an English parlia- ment passed an act of attainder; a far more terrible weapon than the old appeal of treason, which the first parliament of Henry IV. had forbidden. By it the property of the con- demned, as well as his life, was forfeited; furthermore, unlike the decree of an ordinary court of law, the king could not reverse such an act; only the power which had passed an act of attainder could undo it. Such bills were now brought forward against York, Salisbury, and Warwick.

The winter of 1459 and 1460, the exiles spent in preparing for a descent upon England. Early in June the preparations were Descent of Completed. Salisbury and Warwick landed in Kent uwrn^KcT^ ^^^ moved boldly upon London. Later, York crossed 1460. from Ireland to Wales and entered England from the

west, where he could always count upon the support of the Morti- mer tenants. The Nevilles of the south fiocked to the standards of Salisbury and Warwick. The king retired to Coventry. London, whose people had no love to waste on the French queen, opened

1400] YORK CLAIMS THE GROWN Sll

its gates to the rebels, assured, however, by tlie declaration of Salisbury and Warwick that they had no quarrel with the king, and came only to restore good government to the realm. The wavering now flocked in from middle and eastern England, and early in July, Salisbury and Warwick advanced to Northampton where the Lancastrians were marshalled in force. The battle was fought on the 10th ; the Lancastrians were touted and the king again taken.

From Xorthampton the Yorkist army returned to London. In the person of the king, they held the key to the whole situa- tion, and could cast the onus of treason and rebellion again in agaiust the authorized government upon their enemies. Their first stop was to reorganize the council in the king's name and issue a call for a parliament, which met at Westminster in October. The new parliament, as a matter of course, was as thoroughly Yorkist in its sympathies, as the parliament which had met the Xovember before at Coventry had been Lancastrian, and its first act was naturally to undo the work of its predecessor.

While parliament was in session, York reached London, marching from the west. He at once assumed the airs of royalty, Tnrk claims ^^^^®^ ^^® ^^"& ^^^ ^' ^^8 palacc, and appearing before Thecom^ the astonishcd Lords, laid his hand upon the throne promise. and claimed it as his by right of birth. Kichard found, however, that he had men to deal with. The Lords remained silent, and Warwick openly declared his surprise and his disapproval; he would not violate his oath to the stricken king; ho would not give the lie to every pledge which ho and his father had made to the people. Then York's better sense revived. He saw that he had gone too far, and graciously accepted a com- promise. The king was restord tc his palace and his honors; but York was to be designated as ]:is heir in the place of Margaret's son. Parliament sanctioned the arrangement by a formal act and the king acquiesced.

It was now the turn of Margaret to be roused to acts of desjicration. In the months which had followed Xorthampton she had wandered with her son, at times almost aLomc^ ^\i^^k:«^^

212 LAST STAGE OF HTJKDfiED YEABS' WAB [Hsmr VL

in imminent peril, to reach the land of the Scots at last, where she found refuge at the court of the youthful James III. Here Mar- Thewcond g^ret received encouragement and assistance, and was

Mc^arS[ ^^^^ ^^^® ^^ ^^^ ^® ^®^^ again at the head of an ^^^ army recruited from the borders; simple farmer lads,

the most part drawn from Lancastrian and Percy lands, clad in rusty armor and mounted upon lean steeds, but glad to follow their queen in hope of avenging her wrongs and plundering the rich homes of the south. York and Salisbury with a small band of six thousand men advanced to Sandal Castle near the town of Wakefield ; their purpose was to watch the marauding bands of Margaret until March and Warwick could bring up their men. A well contrived ruse, however, lured York into hazarding a battle at Wakefield, December 29, 1460. York's little army was cut to pieces ; he himself was slain. The earl of Salisbury was taken and beheaded the next day at Pontefract. The heads of the fallen chiefs were borne to York and there set up over the gates; the head of York adorned in derision with a paper crown.

The rumor of Margaret's victory rapidly spread through the north and soon brought other recruits flocking to her banners

from both sides of the border to the number of 40,000. Cross and St But her success was again to prove her undoing. She

had never appreciated the national sentiment which her foreign birth had arrayed against her. This sentiment was now doubly quickened over all middle and southern England by rumors of the barbarities perpetrated by the horde of border ruflSans that followed at her neels. The formal alliance with the Scots, moreover, had still further alienated the English, so that for the first time the war began to assume a really national character. Four armies were in the field ; the earl of Warwick with 30,000 men lay at St. Albans, waiting the approach of Margaret who was advancing upon London by the Ermine Street, burning the cities and laying waste the fields in her path; York's son, Edward the earl of March, lay in the Severn valley at the head of an army of 10,000 men of the Marches; while Owen Tudor who had married Catharine, Ilonry V.'s widow, and his son Jasper, earl of Pembroke, were advancing with a Welsh army

146l] EDWARD PROCLAIMED 218

and threatened March's rear. Edward was only in his nineteenth year, hut at such times lads hecome men in a day. He knew it was useless to attempt to join Warwick with the Tudor force intact behind him, and accordingly turned upon the Tudors, and on February 3, 1461, beat them at Mortimer's Gross. Two weeks after this brilliant victory, February 17, 1461, Margaret came upon Warwick at St. Albans, drove the Yorkists out of the town and regained possession of the king.

The withdrawal of Warwick from St. Albans left the road to London open. Here at last was Margaret's opportunity. Yet TheTnrkUtta ^^^ some unaccountablo reason she delayed, and her drnTsatuT' ^^^ chancc of saving the House of Lancaster was day, Af arch & lost. The Londoners wore hourly expecting the arrival of the northern horde, and, trembling for the safety of their city, had already sent ''certain aldermen and com- missioners ... to speak with the queen's council, to entreat that the northern men be sent home to their country. For the city of London did dread sore to be robbed and spoiled." But Warwick and Edward, having now joined forces at Chipping- Korton, had learned of Margaret's blunder, and were hastening by forced marches to throw themselves between her and the capital. On March 7, the Londoners heard of their approach and at once stopped the supply vans which Henry had ordered to be sent to St. Albans. The next day, amid great rejoicing on the part of the populace, the Yorkists marched through the gates into the city, and on the morning following, March 9, 1461, a council of Yorkist lords declared Henry deposed and proclaimed Edward king.

CHAPTER VII

THE FALL OP YORK AND THE CLOSE OF THE DYNASTIC STRUGGLE

EDWARD IV., J46t-t4H3 EDWARD v., 14Si RICHARD UL, 1483-1485

The reign of Edward IV. began with the proclamation of March 9, 1461. On the same day the horde at St. Albans broke up and began its homeward march, apparently dissatisfied be-

S14 THE FALL OF YORK [dmAnlv.

cause Henry would not allow them to continue their plundering. Edward at once followed the retiring horde and overtaking them

at Towton near York, on the 28th and 29th of March, Towton. ' successfully fought the most obstinate and bloody

battle of the war. Edward entered York in triumph, while Margaret and Henry sought safety beyond the northern border.

From Towton Edward returned to London to be crowned, June 28th; his brothers George and Richard, also, were created

dukes respectively of Clarence and Gloucester. In B^tOteqf November parliament met and as its first duty passed

an act which confirmed all that had been done by Edward; it then declared the Lancastrian kings usurpers, those who had been active in supporting them attainted and their possessions forfeited, and Henry and Margaret traitors.

Edward was by no means an ideal king, though he possessed many good qualities. He had great skill in war and was

uniformly successful. He loved field sports but he eSSooNU^V^ loved also less worthy amusements, and knew no self- restraint when once his appetite was aroused. He was cruel, yet not more cruel than the age, when all public men had been hardened and embittered by ten years of civil strife. In politics Edward's abilities were not as conspicuous as in war; he was careless in matters of business, trustful to simplicity and altogether lacking in foresight.

When Edward returned to London, he had loft Warwick and his brother, John Neville, to carry on the struggle in the north.

They reduced the ereskt Percy strongholds, but were ofstnHJoiein compelled to take and retake them several times in the

course of a few months. Margaret in her desperation had given up Berwick to the Scots in return for their aid; she had also promised to give up Calais for the support of Louis XI. Both gave her some assistance; Louis sent her 2,000 men. But an English invasion of Scotland in 1462 compelled the Scots to abandon Margaret's cause and expel Henry YI. from the country. He sought refuge at Waddington Hall on the Lancastrian estates where he was finally discovered in 1465. Henry Beaufort, the

lie?] THE KING AND WARWICK 216

successor of Edmund, was defeated at Hexham and put to death. A few castles still held out in Wales, but the throne of Edward was secure as far as the House of Lancaster was concerned.

Since the battle of Towton Edward had given himself up to the gayeties of a luxurious court, leaving the cares of govern- ment to Warwick. Yet he was not so steeped in his Warwiejt^ life of indolence that he could not keep a watchful eye upon his minister. Thus when he found that War- wick was wife-hunting for him in the courts of the continent he quietly slipped off to Orafton and secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Sir John Gray, a Lancastrian who had fallen at the second, battle of St. Albans. The high-spirited minister, in the meantime, was left to go on with his negotiations until the last moment, when Edward cut short his fine plans by announcing his marriage. Warwick plainly had been duped, and in a way that could not be easily forgotten. Other events followed which still further widened the opening breach* between Edward and the great Neville.

In connection with his marriage scheme, Warwick had also developed a policy of alliance with France as the best security Second hu- ^^^ Edward's throne. But Edward was quite disposed Wart^h!^ to follow out the traditional policy of his predecessors ^^^' and keep France humble by building up Burgundy;

its magnificent court was far more to his taste than the mean surroundings of the niggardly and spiderlike Louis XL With shrew^ cunning, also, he took the precaution to build up around him a new family of nobles to offset the power of the Nevilles. He made his father-in-law, Sir Eichard Woodville, treasurer, then raised him to the rank of earl as Earl Rivers, and finally appointed him Constable of England. He also found husbands among the peerage for his wife's sisters, of whom there were a round half dozen. Equally distinguished marriages were found for the queen's brother, also a Richard Woodville, and for Lord Thomas Grey, the elder of the queen's two sons by her first marriage. Anthony Woodville, another brother of the queen, had already married a wealthy heiress and in her right had become Xord Scales.

216 THE FALL OF TOBK [iBWAwnr.

Thus in a day Edward had raised at his side a worthy rival of the Nevilles. Warwick, who had more shrewdness perhaps than

the clever young king gave him credit for, fully com- p^>ttijy of prehended the object of the king's policy and began to

counterplot, proposing to marry his own daughter Isabelle to the king^s brother, George duke of Clarence. Clarence who was weak, inconstant, and vain, jealous of the Wood- villes and anxious to be considered the heir to the throne, readily lent himself to Warwick's schemes. Edward attempted to block the game by forbidding the marriage, but Warwick sent his family off to Calais, where Clarence afterward joined them and the marriage ceremony was duly performed. The marriage of Clarence, however, was only a step in a greater plan, by taking advantage of the growing jealousy of the Yorkists of the Woodvilles, to assure the hold of the Nevilles upon the high places in the state. It is not known that Warwick was implicated in the first rising of the year 1469, which was a small affair, confined to the

neighborhood of York and apparently the result of Of the Ne- strictlv local causes. It was soon followed, however,

vUies 1469' . .

by a more widely extended movement which was joined by the Nevilles and which assumed such proportions as to defeat a royal army at Edgecote on July 26, and a few days later again at Chepstow, where Earl Eivers and his son, John Woodville, were taken and shortly after beheaded. Warwick and his new son-in- law, in the meantime, had hurried from Calais to Kent, and, calling out the southern Nevilles, were marching north, not to assist Ed- ward, but to seize him before he could rally from the discomfiture of Edgecote. Their plans were entirely successful. Edward was taken at Olney near Coventry and brought to Warwick Castle.

Warwick was now master of the situation ; Edward IV. was a

prisoner and the power of the Woodvilles broken. Yet Warwick's

position was by no means secure. He was still hated

^w,*'"^iLi'* and feared by the Lancastrians ; nor could he contrive

polt'Cr, 1469*

to hold Edward long in prison, for Edward's despotic ways had won the confidence of the great middle class, the burghers, who were weary of the quarrels of the nobles and wanted to see a strong government once more established.

1470] " SECOND RISING OP THE NEVILLES 317

Warwick, therefore, made the best terms he could for himself and Clarence, and Edward was set at liberty.

Any reconciliation, however, between Edward and his old companion in arms could neither be cordial nor lasting. The „ ^ ^ earl continued his policy and Edward watched for his rewntof opportunity. It came in the form of a rising in warwieh, Ldncolushire, apparently stirred up by VVarwick him- self Edward met the insurgents near Stamford, March 12, 1470, and used the royal artillery with such effect that they speedily fled. The battle is known as "Lose-coat Field," from the frantic profusion with which the rebels threw away their coats which were decorated with the fatal badges of their leaders, hoping thereby to escape recognition. Sir Robert Welles, the leader of the insurgents, was captured and beheaded. Before his death he confessed to an extensiye plot in which Edward was to be dethroned and Clarence made king. Warwick of course was implicated, and without waiting for the return of Edward, he took his son-in-law and fled the kingdom. Edward after his release in 1469 had issued a general pardon, but now he had no reason for sparing his enemies, and, contrary to his custom in the earlier wars, even descended to victims of humble rank. The fugitives from Lose-coat Field were hunted across the kingdom, and the hideous penalty which the barbaric laws of the period prescribed for treason, exacted for great and small.

It was now evident to Warwick that his only chance of overreaching the Yorkist king was by making common cause with the exiled Margaret and returning to England riMngofthe under tho Lancastrian banners Louis XI. exerted his influence to bring about a reconciliation with Margaret, and furnished Warwick with ships and men and money. So secretly and so successfully were Warwick's plans carried out, so swiftly at last came the revolution, that within two weeks Edward was a fugitive on the way to the court of Louis's rival in Burgundy. Henry VI. was drawn out of the Tower and once inore set up as the figurehead of the government, but the real power lay in the hands of Warwick, the **King-Maker," as men were beginning to call tho ambitious Neville.

.. _■-■* .

218 THE PALL OP TOBE [bdwab© IV.

The suddenness of Edward's fall, instead of discouraging him, only put him on his mettle, and called out those resources Second reian ^^ ^^G^gy and skill, the possession of which he had October' U70^' fully revealed at Mortimer's Cross and Towton. As March, WL ^jg yiysA had appealed to Louis XI. of France, he now appealed to Louis's enemy, Charles of Burgundy, who in self- defense was compelled to help his ally back again to his throne. Charles, however, was too sore pressed at home to render Edward much aid, and left him largely to his own resources. With 1,500 Englishmen and 300 Germans who had been sent to him by Duke Charles, on March 14, 1471, he landed at Ravenspur, the very spot where Henry of Bolingbroke had landed on a similar errand seventy-two years before. When he reached London his army Bamet April ^^ swelled to 20,000 men. He had already been EaiSr' strengthened by the accession of his brother Clarence,

Sunday, ^^q had joined him on April 4 with an army which he had brought from Gloucestershire, ostensibly to support War- wick. Edward now turned upon Warwick and at Bamet on April 14, after six hours' hard fighting, won a complete victory. Warwick and his brother, John Neville, marquis of Montague, were slain.

The very day of the battle of Barnot, Margaret, who had been held off for nearly three weeks by contrary winds, landed at Weymouth ; but Barnet had removed the last hope of Mayf^mi' ^^s^uing her husband, and as soon as the fatal news reached her, she turned to fight her way into Wales where she could be joined by the Welsh supporters of her house and possibly provide a rallying point for the defeated Lancastrians of the north. But at Tewkesbury on the Severn she was over- taken by Edward at the very moment when her men were about to begin the crossing. The Lancastrians fought as desperate men fight, but everywhere they wore routed and everywhere the fierce Yorkists stained their victory by wholesale slaughter. Among the slain was Henry's son. Prince Edward, according to tradition murdered after the battle in cold blood in the presence of King Edward himself. From Tewkesbury Edward returned to London to continue the slaughter of his foes; on the night that he

1471-1488] THE TYRANNY OP EDWARD S19

entered the city, Ilenry VI. was mnrdered in his lonely cell in the Tower; how was never known. Others less conspicuous, if rich, were allowed to buy their lives by heavy ransoms ; the poor were hurried to the gallows without redress.

The four years wliich followed Tewkesbury were years of comparative quiet. Edward continued to summon parliaments The $eeond *® before; he laid important measures before them and eSw{^ appeared to seek their consent, but the independence wjruaa. qI parliament had passed away, not to be recovered again until the men of the seventeenth century should wrest it from the Stuarts. The nobles of England were by no means exterminated; but the strength of the great house of Neville, which had overthrown the House of Lancaster and raised Edward to the throne, had been entirely shattered, and it was not likely that any other family would succeed to their influence ; Edward would see to that. The nearest heir of John of Gaunt, the son of Margaret Beaufort, was a penniless exile in hiding in a foreign land; a stripling youth, without money and without friends, of whom Edward had little to fear. The people were weary of civil war; the cities, for the most part loyal to York, were well pleased, and all were willing to give the new dynasty a trial.

Instead, however, of turning his mind to securing the solid advantages of peace, Edward allowed Charles of Burgundy to

draw him into an alliance, with the dismemberment of Piamionv, France as its object. But when the moment for action

came, as usual Charles was involved m petty wars at home and was unable to bear his share of the burdens of the cam- paign. Edward in disgust made his own terms with Louis at Picquigny and went home.

The lesson wliich Edward had learned, however, was not lost, and for the rest of his reign he remained satisfied with the

military laurels of his youth, and gave himself to the mwy^' work of securing the foundations of his throne. He Edward IV. ^^^ ^^^^^ forgotten the treachery of his brother

Clarence, and in 1478 appeared in person before the House of Lords to accuse him of treason; the charge was sustained and a few weeks later the unfortunate Clarence was secretly murdered

^>V — -L--:

220 THE FALL OF YORK [edwabi» IT.

in the Tower; drowned, it was said, in a butt of Malmsey. The king who spared not his own brother would not be more tender of lesser folk. He had received a bankrupt treasury from his pred- ecessors and he seized every means within his power, fair or foul, to bring in money. The revolution which had borne him to the throne, had put within his hands ample means of enriching him- self by simply declaring forfeitures against his unsuccessful foes. The revolt of 1470 in particular had placed the vast wealth of the Nevilles at his disposal and afforded him an opportunity for new and still more extensive confiscations.

The courts of justice, also, took advantage of the prevailing suspicion of defection and conspiracy, and turned in a never ceasing stream of revenues, gathered from thousands of petty fines and forfeitures. Xot satisfied with the old forms of exac- tion, Edward's genius devised a new method of extortion known as a "benevolence.*' Previous kings had exacted ''forced loans" from their subjects, which might or might not be repaid. Edward discarded the fiction of a loan altogether and received what he called "free-will offerings" from his loyal subjects. He even made personal solicitations and wrote letters in his own hand requesting gifts from those who dared not refuse them.

In 1483 Edward died, worn out by dissipation and wild living at the age of forty-two. His eldest son, known as Edward V., was a lad of twelve years; and although Edward's ward IV., despotic policy had left little to be feared from the Lancastrian sentiment which still lingered among his nobles, the people, who had learned to dread a rule of protectors and regents, received with a new foreboding of evil the news of the king's death; nor had they long to wait before their worst fears were realized.

Richard, duke of Gloucester, had been commonly recognized as the staunch supporter and confidant of the late king. But he had no sooner learned of his brother's death than he duke of ' began to scheme for the succession. It was an easy matter, comparatively, to get rid of the Woodvilles and secure for himself the position of protector. There were men on the council, however, who were the sworn friends of

1488] RICHARD OF GLOUCESTSB 221

Edward IV., and who were devoted to his children, if not to bis queen. Richard knew that as long as these men remained he Richard Diust Content himself with the office of protector. ?if^thecoSuuSa ^^^ marked men were William, Lord Hastings, the Jfwhe 13, ' captain of Calais, Thomas Eotherham, the archbishop of York, and John Morton, the bishop of Ely. On June 13 Bichard suddenly presented himself before the council, accused Hastings of treason and without giving him any chance for trial or even reply, had him dragged out into the castle yard and executed. Botherham and Morton were cast into prison. This summary purging of the council was not altogether to the liking of the people, yet suspicion was speedily allayed by the report which was industriously circulated by Bichard 's friends, that he had discovered a dangerous conspiracy and that these measures were necessary to preserve the government. Three days later by the aid of the old time-server. Cardinal Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, Bichard persuaded the queen to send Edward's second son to join the little king who had been put into the Tower osten- sibly for his own safety.

With everything now in his hands, with the natural pro- tectors of Edward IV. 's children either dead or in prison, Bichard proceeded to the last step. On Sunday, June 22, Dr. reign begun, Shaw, the brother of the Lord Mayor, preached a remarkable sermon from an open air pulpit in St. Paul's Churchyard, in which he attacked the marriage of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, and further stated that the children of Duke Clarence could not inherit the throne on account of their father's attainder, and that Bichard of Gloucester was there- fore the rightful heir. Three days later an irregular assembly of Bichard's friends, which passed for a parliament, formally asserted his title to the crown and petitioned him to assume his rightful heritage. Bichard, after a fine show of hesitation, accepted, and on the morning of June 26 proceeded in state to Westminster Hall.

Bichard was fully aware of the precarious nature of his hold on the crown, and at once endeavored by an ostentatious show of justice and good government to cause men to forget, if possible, the circumstances by which he had come to the throne. His

^tUtm

222 THE FALL OF YORK [

BICHABO 111.

danger, however, lay not in the revival of the shattered power of the Woodvilles, or of the Nevilles, or of the Lancastrians, but in the disappointed ambitions of the men who had helped wi»uum of him to the throne, the ring of politicians who were in- spired only by corrupt motives and now expected to be rewarded by enjoying the patronage of the government. In 1483 he had to meet such a rising led by Sir Henry Stafford, the duke of Buckingham, ostensibly in the interests of Henry Tudor, the earl of Richmond, son of Margaret Beaufort. It was during this insurrection, or just before, while Richard was humoring the people of York by going through the form of a ihem?iiclt second Coronation in their city, that the two princes who had been lost sight of since their imprisonment in the Tower, were quietly put to death, and tlieir bodies buried under a stone staircase, where their bones were discovered two centuries later, in the time of Charles II.

In January the new king assembled a parliament, which first confirmed the action of the irregular gathering of June, and then Richard's P^ssed bills of attainder against Buckingham, Bich- ^nmiaru^^ mond, Bishop Morton, and nearly a hundred others. 1*^4. But Richard displayed little eageniess in punishing his

enemies. He was bent rather upon securing some popularity at any price, and at the petition of parliament hastened to condemn some of the despotic practices of Edward IV., especially his trick of exacting benevolences and the custom of seizing the goods of an accused man before conviction. He also played for the sup- port of the cities by granting greater freedom to commerce; while a statute, specially designed to encourage literature, forbade any one to hinder a stranger from coming into the country to sell books, *' written or printed."

No amount of generous concession. However, could dispel the gloom which now besran to settle over the new reign. Richaru's Gathering popularity which had been considerable at first was Uiehard's^ fast ebbing; men began to understand his real reign, character. His only son, Edward, died in April shortly

after the parliament had declared him Richard's heir; the death of his wife, Anne Neville, followed in March of the next year.

I486] B08W0BTH 228

The question of tho succession was thus again opened, and a rumor that Richard proposed to marry Edward IV. 's daughter, Elizabeth, aroused such indignation that he was obliged to make a publio declaration that sucb a step had not been thought of.

In the meanwhile Henry, earl of Richmond, was busily laying his plans for an invasion of England. Richard had used

his influence to got him expelled from Brittany, but Richm*mdin the French court had given him a cordial welcome.

Hither had come the exiled lords who had been attainted by Richard's parliament, and by July, 1485, Henry had gathered a small fleet at Harfleur. On August 7, he landed at Milford Haven in Pembroke with about 2,000 men, and began his march across Wales to the Severn. He was among his own people and his army rapidly swelled in numbers as he advanced. Men felt that the llood-stained career of Richard was drawing to its close and hastened to join the standard of Richmond. One of Richard's lieutenants', Lord William Stanley, had been put in command of the Marches, but he secretly assured Henry of his support and allowed him to pass on toward mid-England, follow- ing slowly in his rear. Richard in the meanwhile was concentra- ting his strength, and as Henry drew near, advanced to Bosworth, where he lay encamped on the night of the 21st of August. He was surrounded by treachery and treason; he knew not whom to trust; defection was in the air. The night, it is said, he passed in sleepless wretchedness, haunted by terrifying dreams and gloomy foreboding of the day to come. Ho was up, however, before daybreak, and after an eloquent harangue to his troops, with his crown upon his head led them to the battle. The armies met on Redmoor plain about three miles from Bosworth. Richard's army outnumbered Henry's two to one, and his men apparently were fast getting the better of their antagonists, when the Stanleys went over to the side of Henry and at once turned

the balance in his favor. Richard saw that all was August 22, over, and flinging himself into the press was cut down

in an attempt to reach Richmond. The battered crowUj which had been struck from his head by a sword cut, was found clinging to a hawthorn bush near by, and was placed by

224 THE PALL OF YORE [ricbabo in.

Sir William Stanley upon the head of the victor. Then the soldiers took up the shout and hailed Henry king.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Chivalbt: Leon Gautier, OMvalry, translated by Henry Frith: Jesso;), StudUt &y a Seehue^ Chap. V; Seebohm, Feudal Tenuret in England^ FortnigfUly Betiew, New Series, VU. pp. 80-107.

Thb Long Bow nr Engush History: Barnard, Companion to Eng. Hist.^ pp. 07-80; Oman, Art of War, pp. 167, 161. 400, 568, Ml, 667, 684-587, 010-612; Morris, Welih Ware of Edward I., Chaps. II and Vm; English Hist. Bev,^ VoL 2C. pp. 788-788, and VoL

XU, 427-480.

Thb ComnBdAL Rslations ot Engi«and and thb Hundbbd Tbabs* Was: Bar- nard. Companion to Eng, Hist., pp. 968-803; Cunningham. The Qrowth of English Industry and Commerce, \o\. I (8a ed.), pp. 241-800.

Thb Fbudai. Rblations ot thi3 Kings ot England and Sootulnd: Wyckoff. Feudal Relations between the Kings of England and Scotland, Chicago, 1887; Burton, History of Scotland, Vol. I, Chaps. X, XI and Xni; Vol. II, Chaps. XIV-XXIV.

Thb English Navt in thb Hundbbd Ybabs' Was: Barnard, Companion to Eng. Hist., pp. 164-174.

THB ASSTTlfPTION OT TiTLB OT KiNG OT FBANCB BY EDWABD IIL: Stubhs, C. H.,

Vol n, p. 400, note 1 ; Longman, Edward III., Vol. I, Chaps, ni and VIL

Cbbgt and Poitibrs: Frolssart, Chronicles, c. CXXVI-CXXXI, CLVI-CLXIX; Le Baker, Chronicles, ed. by £. Maunde Thompson, pp. 280-202; Eng. Hist. Rev., VoL XTV, p. 766; Longman, I, pp. 266, etc. ; Oman, Art of War, pp. 603-614, 610-688.

ThbBlaok Dbath: Hecker, Epidemics of the_Middle_Ages, pji. 1-66; Rogers, J. E.

nnigntly Review, Voh til, pp. 101-106; Seebohm, The Black 'Death and Its Place in English History, Fortnightly

Thorold, England before and after the Black Death, Fortnightly Review, vol. m.

Review, U, 140-100, 268-270; Charles Crelghton, A History of Epidemics in Briiaini Gasquet. The Qreat Pestilence^ 1348-49.

Thb Statutb ot Laboubbbs: Lee, Source Book, pp. 206-206; Cunningham, Growth of Eng. Industry, Vol. I, pp. 803-300; Translations and Reprints from Original Sources of European History, El, 6, p. 8.

Wyclit and thb Wyclititb Moybmbnt: John Wiclif and His English Precursors (a translation and abridgment of Lechler's Johan von Wiclif), 2 vols.; Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wyclif; Trans, and Reprints, Vol. II, No. 5, HI.

Thb Peasant Revolt: Trevelyan, pp. 285, 236; Kriehn, Am. Hist. Bev., VoL VII, pp. 254-285 and 458-484; Trans, and Beprints, n, No. 5, IV. For life of times see Lang- land, Piers the Plowman, and Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: The Prologue.

Pabt.tambntaby Qovbbnhbnt undeb the Lancastrians: Terry, pp. 438-448, 474- 476; Taswell-Langmead, pp. 220-234; Stubbs. Vol. II, Chaps. XVi, xVlI; Vol. m. Chaps. XVIII-XX; Wakeman and Hassall, Constitutional Essays, pp. 224-267; Wylle, History of England under Henry IV., Vols. I-IV.

Joan of Abo: Ramsay, Lancaster and York, Vol. I, Chaps. XXVn-XXIX; Lavlsse, Histoire de France, VoL IV (Part) U, pp. 41-70.

Causes ot the Wars ot the Roses: Terry, pp. 461-473; Oalrdner, The Houses of Lancaster and York, pp. 150-178; Ramsay, vol. I, Chaps. III-XV; Gairdner, ed. of Paston Letters: Introduction.

The Cadb Rbbbllion: Kriehn, The English Bising in U5o; Ramsay, VoL II, CThaps. vm and IX.

Richard ot Gloucester: Gairdner, Life and Reign of Richard III., 8d ed. ; Eng. Hist. Bev., VI, pp. 250-283, 444-4(M, 806-815.

THE Development of English Towns: Stubbs, C. H., Vol. III. Chap. XXI: Blrs. J. R. Green, Toion Life in the Fifteenth Century, 2 vols. ; Cimningham, voL I, Book m, Chap. V; Gross, QUd Merchant, Vol. I.

PART ni— NATIONAL ENGLAND

THE EBA OF NATIONAL AWAKENING

BOOK n— RELIGIOUS REFORMATION

FROM 1485 TO leOS

CHAPTER I

THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY HENST rn., Uli5-JS09

The fifteenth century compared with the fourteenth had been a century of great material prosperity. A fortunate succession of Enaiuhcom- ^^vorable scasons had brought a corresponding suc- »g«j^^^*^ cession of abundant harvests; the plague had ceased <»»*«*n/. its ravages and the French war had run its course. Commerce was particularly vigorous and active; a fact attested by a long series of commercial treaties which extend through the whole century, by which English traders sought-to secure markets, not only in the cities of their neighbors across the Channel, but also in the Hanse towns of the Baltic, in Castile and Portugal, and even in distant Florence. The materials of this trade were *'wool, wheat, lead, tin, honey, hides, saddlery, hardware, and even guns." The return trade brought wine from Gascony, wine and sugar from Greece, paper from Venice and Florence, silks and stuffs of various hues and kinds, turquoises and rubies from the Orient, furs and strong, coarse serges and friezes from Ireland, while even distant Iceland poured its stock-fish, eider- down, and brimstone into Bristol. The dockyards of the east and south were called into unwonted activity; shipbuilding flourished, and the keeping up of a fleet became once more the accepted policy of English kings. For much of the time the government had been bankrupt and its tenure uncertain, to say

-^ —

226 RESTORATION OF THE MOKARCHY [HnmTVIL

nothing of the presence of actual civil war; Henry V., Henry VI., and Edward IV. had successively debased the coinage, and yet in spite of these influences, merchant and artisan had continued to prosper. The seas were comparatively safe. The merchants left the government pretty much to the nobles and neither bothered themselves nor imperiled their interests by mixing up their ventures with aflfairs of state, while the thrifty condition of the craft-gilds, which maintained the quality of English goods and the regularity of the output of English shops, enabled them to secure a firm hold upon the markets of Europe.

Architecture also felt the new life, although it is indicative of the direction in which the currents were tending, that its tri- Architecture ^"^P^s lay not SO much in the erection of great public ^cndiiluiar huildings as in the construction of better and more styur commodious dwellings for the people. Its spirit was

practical, materialistic; its right angles and upright lines, its flat arches, square-headed windows and broad window-lights, its square-paneled walling and elaborato ceilings, its low-pitched roofs and towering pinnacles, features of the so-cMed perpendicular style, are in marked contrast with the lofty-pointed arches, flying buttresses, and vast roof-spaces of the era which had passed.

The change in the style of architecture was not more marked than the changes In the style of dress, particularly of the middle classes, who were developing other tastes in keeping Su^ctT ^^^^ their improved dwellings. Armor also had changed to keep pace with the improvements in offensive warfare which had followed the introduction of gun- powder. It had become so heavy, so elaborate, and so cumber- some that it was rapidly approaching the limit when it would be no longer possible for the knight to move, much less fight to advantage under the increasing weight of steel. The long bow, however, the traditional national weapon which had won Crecy and Poitiers, still maintained its popularity in England and prevented the general introduction of hand fire?rms; yet heavy ordnance had been adopted very early, and figursd in all the important sieges of the period. The eighteen-foot pike, which the Swiss had used to such advantage against the chivalry of Austria, had

1485] PRINTING IN ENGLAND 227

also become a favorite with the infantry. The importance of drill and training in the use of arms was generally recognized, thus making the military life a distinct profession, and to that extent robbing the old feudal nobility of their occupation.

The intellectual life of England had remained at a low ebb

until the close of the century. The renaissance was in full tide

in Italy, but English ears were so filled with the din

The inteUec- '^ °

tudivf^of of political strife or commercial rivalries, that little heed was paid to the quiet-voiced scholar, bent upon the lore of a forgotten world. Within the seclusion of the universities, where the atmosphere was freest from the distracting influences of the day, and where much might have been accomplished for pure learning, the restrictions which had been placed upon discussion since the days of LoUardism, had dis- couraged research and stifled thought. There was poetry, and much of it; weak imitations of Chaucer, imitations also of the French ballads, and the popular miracle plays, or mysteries; but, although some writers, as Robert Henry son, still labored quite in the old spirit of Chaucer, in general '*the quality of the verse was poor and the thought lifeless."

The new inspiration which the century was to contribute to bookmaking was to come, not from the closet of poet or philosopher, but from the shop of the printer. Block £wland.*^ printing had been known in England as early as 1350; but in the reign of Edward IV., William Caxton, an Englishman who had formerly settled in Bruges, introduced the new art of printing by movable type. He had already printed abroad the Game and Play of Chess; but at Westminster, where under the special patronage of Edward IV. he set up his press, he attempted far more ambitious tasks: Chaucer'' s Worhs^ the Morte d^ Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, the Pohjchronicon of Higdon, a history of England to which Caxton made his own additions, bringing the work down to date, the Sayings of the Philosophers^ translated by Lord Anthony Rivers, and the story of Reynard the Fox,

All in all the age was a great age, although it abounded in deep shadows. Its springs were commercial rather than spiritual

228 RESTOBATIOK OF THE HOKABCHY [BrnmYVL

or intellectual, and like every commercial age it was also material- istic. Its materialism, moreover, had invaded the high places

of state and church; it had poisoned the motives of vieagef ^^^ *^^ noble, and had turned politics into a bloody

scramble for plunder; it had obscured the vision of the people and weakened their grasp upon the supreme principles of righteousness and liberty; it had converted bishops and abbots into thrifty landlords, more anxious to save sheep than to save souls, to extend their temporal powers than to develop the Christian graces among their people. The influence of the church had declined correspondingly, and a spirit of irreligion pervaded all classes. Yet if faith in Ood were less active, a belief in the devil and his works was never so vigorous; the existence of witchcraft and the general potency of the black art were commonly accepted, and figured in more than one great state trial of the century.

At the opening of Henry VII. 's reign, however, all conditions were prophetic of a greater era at hand. The conditions of the

older political life were passing away. The old

uSiTrSLds. ^^eo"®s 0* ^^^ sta*® ^^ic^ ^»d served to hold the medieval society together, were steadily yielding to new conceptions of the relations of king and nation. New elements, also, had been thrust into the body politic as a result of the decline of villainage and the development of the free yeomanry. The wealth of the nation was no longer confined to the manors of the great lords, but was gravitating to the cities and was fully represented in the growing importance of the merchant class. The traditions of recent baronial usurpation, moreover, had completely displaced the more ancient traditions of royal encroachment upon the constitution. Englishmen feared civil strife more than all other evils and were willing to concede almost any powers to the crown, if only they might secure the peace for which they longed. The demand of the hour, there- fore, was for protection against the lawlessness of subjects rather than against the possible encroachments of the crown; for a crowned constable to apprehend and punish influential criminals, rather than for pugnacious parliaments ; for new markets rather

1485. I486] HENRY VII. 229

than for foreign conqnests; for the substantial favors of great commercial treaties rather than the enforcement of the claims of the English crown over France.

The new king in appearance was spare; his face was intel- lectual, secretive, cold and severe, suggesting the ascetic. In diplomacy he was cunning, patient, farsighted, and ^^^yjif practical. He had proved himself no mean soldier; yet like all the great kings of England, he was not fond of war. He was a miser not because he loved gold, but by policy; he saw that money was the first condition of a strong government. To him a penny saved was far more satisfactory than a penny coaxed from a refractory parliament. Hence his habits were frugal, and his court presented but a shabby appearance to those who remembered the days of the gay, the magnificent, the voluptuous Edward.

Henry called his first parliament together November 7, 1485. He informed them that he held the crown "by just right of Henrv'ttiirH i^^^rit^a^ce and by the judgment of God." They ?^/P€wScr** accepted his statement of fact, and without raising 7,2485, the question of* right, declared "that the inheritance

of the crown of England and France be, rest, remain and abide in the person of our sovereign lord. King Henry VII., and in the heirs of his body." They also declared the late King Richard an usurper, his followers traitors, and then, thinking they had BufiSciently vindicated the position of Henry, extended a general pardon to the survivors. It was a politic act and did much to inspire confidence. Then they still further voiced the earnest desire of the nation for peace by humbly petitioning the king to "deign to marry the Lady Elizabeth York," the daughter of Edward IV. Henry consented, and the marriage was set for January 18, 1486. Thus at last the claims of the two lines of York and Lancaster were merged in the one House of Tudor.

The new monarchy was hardly established before its strength was put to the test by a series of risings due to the restlessness of YorkiBtri^ the deposed Yorkists. In 148(1 Lord Level, a York- 9ing8,i4a6. shire nobleman, raised the people of Yorkshire in the Yorkist interest. But the middle class everywhere hurried to

dSO BBSTOBATIOK OF THB KOKAROHT [bbbt TU.

the king's assistance. A ''marvelous great nnmber of esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen" gathered about Henry, and Lovel and his insurgents were speedily routed.

The same year a second attempt was set on foot in Ireland. The great nobles of the Geraldine line took up Lambert Simnel, the son of an Oxford tradesman, and proclaimed him Simnel, to be "Edward Plantagenet," earl of Warwick, the son of Duke Clarence and Isabella Neville, although the real Edward was at the time safe in Henry's keeping in the Tower. Margaret of Burgundy, Edward IV. 's sister, acknowl- edged Simnel as her nephew, while John de la Pole, the earl of Lincoln, son of a second sister, openly joined Simnel, together with Lovel, who had fled to Flanders after his previous failure. The expedition, composed of a motley crowd of soldiers and adventurers, Germans, Flemings, and Irish, set sail from Dublin in the early summer of 1487, and soon made a landing in Lancashire. In June Henry met them at Stoke; Lovel and Lincoln were slain, but Simnel was captured and set to work as a turnspit in the royal kitchen. He was not worth the hanging.

The rising bore immediate fruit in the revival of the old custom of calling together members of the king's council as a TheCouH ^ovLTt of special criminal judicature in cases which the %Mmb€r ordinary courts could not reach. The council acting ^^w'* in this capacity was known as the Court of Star

Chamber from the room in the royal palace where it ordinarily held its sittings. Henry's primary object was to put a stop to the long established abuses of livery of company, which made such risings as those of Lovel and Simnel possible. The court was empowered by special act of parliament to deal with "such offenses as livery and maintenance, jury packing, incitement to riot," and, in general, with all offenses where the ordinary courts failed to give justice.

While Henry was thus laying anew the foundations of order at home, the managers of the young French sovereign, Charles VIII., had been steadily reducing the remaining feudatories of the French allegiance and consolidating the strength of the crown. Henry was not blind to the significance of these steps; England was

1493,1498] PEBKIir WABBECK 231

deeply interested, and when in 1490 the advance of the French arms promised the speedy reduction of Brittany, the English saw warwuh themselves threatened not only with the loss of an old

BrSSSr" *^^ ^^'^^ *"y ^^^ ^'"^ ^^^ ^^^ destruction of their ^^^ trade with the Bretons, for the lords of Brittany had

given special privileges to English merchants. Henry's merchants, therefore, were eager to prevent the absorption of Brittany by the French crown even at the expense of war. Henry, however, felt that his position at home was by no means so secure that he could afford to plunge into war with the now powerful French Etapii»,Aw- monarchy. Yet the nation insisted and through par- liament virtually forced the king to interfere. Still Henry entered into the war with anything but a whole heart, and was content finally to allow Charles to buy him off. The nation was chagrined and angry, but had to accept the result.

One reason why Henry had hesitated to plunge into a foreign war was the fear that such a war would offer a new opportunity for the Yorkists to make trouble, and so it turned ont. ^rSscfc. Another pretender was found the moment the king had become involved in a foreign campaign. This new claimant was the famous Perkin Warbeck, who asserted that he was Bichard of York, the younger of the two princes who were supposed to have been murdered in the Tower in 1483. As in the case of Simnel, Margaret of Burgundy accepted this pretender also as her nephew, and rendered him all possible assistance; while the king of France welcomed him in hope of gaining some new advantage over his enemy. Warbeck was a Fleming of Tournay, handsome, fascinating, well educated, of kingly bearing and noble manners, and so well tutored in his part that some readily believed in him. He appeared first in Ireland some time in 1492, where he was favorably received by the Irish and acknowledged by the deputy of the king, the earl of Kildare. From Ireland he passed to France, and in 1493 appeared at the court of Margaret.

The fact that two pretenders could so readily get the support of the representative of Henry in Ireland, shows how little control he had in this part of his reatms, and how little respect the earl of

232 BESTORATION OF THE HONABGHT [hbokt ni.

Kildare had for his chief. Henry determiDed, therefore, to re- place the turbulent earl of Kildare by a more responsible deputy. The man whom he selected was Sir Edward Poynines,

Ireland, '' °

Poyning^'s an old Companion in exile^ as devoted to his interests as he was able and determined. Poynings began his work by getting possession of the Pale. He then compelled the Irish parliament to pass a series of acts^ by which it was declared: firsty that the consent of the English king and council was necessary to the summoning of an Irish parliament; second j that all bills considered by the Irish parliament must first be con- sidered by the English parliament; and thirds that the recent laws of the English parliament were binding upon Ireland. Here was a fitting close of that century and a half of English legislation for Ireland which began with the Statute of Kilkenny of 1367, * Vhich made it high treason for an English settler to adopt Irish customs, to speak the Irish tongue, or to marry an Irish woman' ^; which in 1465 made it lawful for a freeman to kill a thief on sight, or even one whom he suspected of being a thief ; and which now in 1494 deprived the Irish parliament of all power to make its own laws. This action effectually robbed Warbeck of the chance of further assistance from Ireland.

In the meanwhile Henry had determined to force the Flemings to expel his enemy. The task was not diflScult; for ^^ ^ although Margaret persisted in befriending her spurious upon Flem- nephew, Henry knew that the policy of Flanders was *" '"^' determined in the long run by the burghers. Upon the burghers, therefore, he brought his displeasure to bear, proclaim- ing an embargo upon all goods shipped to England from the Flemish ports. The cessation of the English trade raised such an outcry that Margaret was compelled to let Warbeck go; and Philip, the new duke of Burgundy, secured for his compliance a commercial treaty with England known as the Magnus Inter- cursusy which guaranteed freedom of trade between irUercur»wi, England and a number of Flemish cities, and was of great benefit to both countries. The success of Henry's embargo reveals the growing influence of commerce and the com- mercial classes in shaping the foreign policy of European nations.

14d6-U99] CLOSE OF WARBBCK^S CABEjBB 283

From Flanders Warbeck attempted to make a descent on the coast of Kent, bnt was easily beaten off, and finally by way of Ireland reached Scotland. James IV. gave the adven* SeoOand, turer a generons welcome^ acknowledged him as Edward IV. 's son, and fonnd a wife for him in his own kinswoman, Catharine Gordon. He even went so far as to cross the border with his prot6g6, and begin the harrying of the Northumbrian peasants; but Warbeck sickened of this kind of work and returned to Scotland in disgust. Then James grew weary of his high-toned guest who took no pleasure in miJcing war on simple peasant folk, and after two years saw him and his wife leave the kingdom without regret.

The threat of northern invasion had roused parliament to unusual effort. It granted the king the enormous subsidy of £120,000; and also empowered him to borrow an iheCfymiith- additional sum of £40,000. When, however, the ministers attempted to collect the money, there was great dissatisfaction throughout England, where resistance to taxation was coming to be almost a national tradition. In Corn- wall the discontent expressed itself in armed revolt; a dangerous band of insurgents began the usual march upon London and were not stopped until they reached Blackheath.

Warbeck, who had found little sympathy in Ireland, landed in Cornwall some three months after Blackheath, and taking The end of advantage of the continued dissatisfaction of the Mre^^'' people, encouraged them once more to take up arms. H97-im. He attacked Exeter but was driven off by the earl of Devonshire, and retired to Taunton. Here his courage forsook him altogether and he fled to sanctuary at Beaulieu in the New Forest. He was taken and brought before Henry at Exeter and humbly confessed all the pitiable fraud. Henry sent him to the Tower and for a time treated him fairly well ; but an unsuccessful attempt to escape in which he tried to take with him Edward Plantagenet, the genuine earl of Warwick, brought both the unfortunate young men to the block.

The creation of the Court of Star Chamber was only one of many indications of the despotic tendency of Henry's administra'

234 BESXOBATION OP THE HONABCHY [nsmr VIL

tion. Certain very definite checks upon the royal authority had been clearly recognized both in custom and in formal law before the end of the fifteenth century. Theoretically the 5^^^^ liberties of the nation were secure, but in the appli- cation of law in individual cases there was still wide opportunity for abuse. Unfortunately, also, the conditions under which Henry held the crown, frequently justified such evasious in the interests of peace and order. Parliament, moreover, not only regarded such usurpations with favor, but supported the king in measures which a hundred years before would have called the nation to arms. This is not to be explained simply by the weakness of parliament, or by the fact that the nobles no longer had within their grasp the means of forcing the demands of parliament upon the king, but rather by the fact that Henry VIJ. and his successor really represented the policy of the great body of yeomanry and gentry who controlled the parliaments of the sixteenth century.

It was in keeping with this same tendency that toward the end of his reign Henry dispensed with the services of parliament MBciMJtv ^^^S®^^®r. The outcry which had been raised against ^tuje8" of the grants of 1497, had proved to him that even for the raising of subsidies parliament was useless, and that its authority was not sufficient to outweigh the increasing opposition of the nation to taxation. Edward IV /s method of raising money by benevolences was far more convenient. Henry found it useful, however, in levying his benevolences to respect the semblance of law, sometimes by securing the sanction of a council of notables summoned for this pui-pose, and sometimes by securing an authorization by parliament. For the most part his rich subjects responded without protest, accepting the burden as a sort of price which they were paying for the much desired peace and for protection against other and worse kinds of spoliation.

In other ways, also, Henry's agents contrived not only to replenish his treasury as he needed funds but to accumulate a hoard which at his death was estimated at £1,800,000. At the beginning of his reign confiscations were numerous, and when

1494-lBOl] MATRIMONIAL ALLIANCES OF HENBY Til. 236

these began to fail, the two barons of the Exchequer, Empson and Dudley, proposed to hold all those who had wittingly or xyranmycf ^Unwittingly infringed npon ancient feudal rights of ^th€^^ the crown, customs most of them obsolete, and fine the elke^uer. offenders. Fines were also levied without mercy upon all criminals and rebels. Even the Comishmen, whose poverty was pro- verbial, were compelled to pay each his shilling fine in order to secure a pardon after the rising of 1497. Offenders who were so unhappy as to be conspicuous for their wealth, were fined proportionately.

In the later years of Henry the nations of western Europe began the long struggle to set bounds to the ambition of French ^^^ kings. The recent rapid advance of France had amanee$cf roused the apprehension and jealousy of her neighbors, and when in 1494 the visionary Charles VIII. entered upon his famons Italian campaign for the purpose of overthrowing the Aragonese princes of Naples in the interest of his own shadowy claims to the Neapolitan crown, his first startling successes led at once to a formal counter-league of the western powers, in which Ferdinand of Spain and the Hapsburg emperor, Maximilian, bore a leading part. England was hardly concerned in the issue, for it really mattered little to her who controlled Italy or how it was ultimately to be divided. But English statesmen did not yet comprehend the advantages of England ^s insular position, or the wisdom of holding aloof from continental entanglements in which she had no real interest; to be without an alliance was regarded as a position of great weakness, and hence Henry VII. sought for a place in the new continental system by the side of Hapsburg and Spain, as a sort of silent member of the league.

The friendly relations of Hapsburg, Spain, and England, thus established in their first alliance against France, were to have the gravest results in shaping the future history of Europe, matrinumiai and of England in particular. In 1496 Juana of Hapsburg, Aragon, the second danghter of Ferdinand and Isabella, icMd. and was married to Philip, the duke of Burgundy, son of the emperor Maximilian. In 1501 Catharine, another daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was married to Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII., and after Arthur's death the next year,

286 BE8T0RATI0K OF THE HONABCHT [bsmbt VU.

she was pledged to Henry's second son, afterward Henry VIII. An attempt to detach from France her old traditional ally, Scotland, also led in 1502 to the marriage of James IV. and Margaret, a daughter of Henry VII. Of these marriages the Hapsburg-Span- ish marriage waste save the papal supremacy in southern Europe; but the English- Spanish marriage was to force the severance of England from the papal system ; the Scotch-English marriage was to result in the final union of England and Scotland under a king of the Stuart line. At the time such results were farthest from the minds of the chief actors; Henry thought only of secnring the stability of his throne and the peace of his kingdom, and in these he succeeded.

Henry died in 1509. He had done much for England; he had restored the monarchy, established peace, repressed the great nobles, and compelled all classes to obey the laws. He was not a great legislator; but he was a great peace-officer. From the point of view of the constitution, however, his administration marks the beginning of a serious retrogression; he had little use for parliament, and greatly strengthened and enlarged the authority of the royal council as the chief instrument of govern- ment, making it necessary, in the next century, to fight over again the quarrel between king and parliament.

CHAPTER II

THE MONARCHY SUPREME. THE ADMINISTRATION OF W0L8BY

JJESRY VUL, 1609-1530

The accession of Henry VIII. was hailed by all classes with confident enthusiasm. No king had presented himself to the

nation with so clear a title since the accession of ^irvVJiL Richard II. ; merchants and petty artisans, great nobles

and gentry, freeholders and copyholders, felt that in this York-Lancastrian king the peace which Henry VII. had given was finally and definitely secured. The new king, more- over, possessed in himself many elements which commended him

1S08-1509] HENBY YIII. AND THE NEW LEABNINO 237

to his people. He was a fine yonth of eighteen, tall, broad- Bhonldered, handsome in form and feature, a champion with lance or long bow. Yet beneath a gloss of refinement and culture, there lay another nature of which Henry himself possibly was not conscious in those days when his will had not yet been crossed, or his vanity had not yet fed on the sweets of unlimited power.

In his domestic policy, Henry contemplated no serious departure from his father's plans. He kept the great nobles out of office, Thedonugtui *^^ surroundod the throne with a new nobility, which i^iicy qf he himself raised from the middle class. He made the church more than ever dependent upon the royal will. Almost his first act was to cause the arrest of Empson and Dudley, his father's hated barons of the Exchequer, whose only crime had been an over-faithful service of the crown ; it was an ominous beginning of a reign to be proverbially disastrous to great ministers.

During the reign of Henry VII. the renaissance was in full tide in Italy, but it had been late in reaching England. The new king began at once to show favor to the devotees of oiidThenew' the ucw learning; he was charmed with the conversa- tion of men like More and Colet ; he was fiattered to be counted one of their number, and no doubt thought that he was in sympathy with their ideals. He protected Colet, and cordially welcomed to England Erasmus, the learned scholar of Rotterdam. He encouraged the founding of grammar schools and colleges, and supported Wolsey in his plan of appropriating the wealth of decayed monasteries to securing better facilities for educating the clergy.

When Henry began his reign, his advisers regarded it of the utmost importance to continue the foreign policy of the first _ ^ ^ Tudor. In 1503 a special dispensation of Pope Julius II. w>/i<?yo/ had authorized the marriage of Henry with Catharine Marriage, ' of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur, and the union had been duly celebrated soon after the death of Henry VII. to the great delight of the people, who saw in it a visible pledge of Henry's purpose to continue his father's polioy*

238 THE HONARCHT 8UPBEHE [Hinrvm.

If, however, they thought that their energetic young soyereign would be content to accept the elder Henry's passive but safe policy of silent partnership with Spain and Hapsburg, they soon found that they were seriously mistaken. For, in spite of many protests, in 1511 Henry entered into an active alliance with Ferdinand, Maximilian, Julius II., and the Republic of Venice, •^**the Holy League," — in order to cripple France and put a stop to her aggressions in Italy.

The first venture of Henry was not assuring. A campaign in Ouienne was a miserable fiasco. An invasion of northern France Henry's first ^^ pcrsou the next year was more successful. Terou- w^^*^ enne fell and then Tournay. But it soon became U13, apparent to the high-spirited king that his wily allies

were using him for their own purposes, allowing him to bear the burden of the war, while they expected to share the spoil. He drew off, therefore, and returned home in a mood such as might be expected of a man of his nature, when once awakened to the fact that he had been made the dupe of supposed friends.

The ostensible occasion of Henry's withdrawal was an attack upon England by James IV. of Scotland, who, irritated by some _ recent grievances, in spite of his marriage to a Tudor

SepUmbcr princess, had yielded to the old traditional sympathies of the Scots with the French, and had taken advantage of Henry's absence to invade Northumberland. The Howards, however, had met the Scots on Flodden Field not far from the border and after a most skillfully conducted battle completely routed them; James himself was slain and his bloodstained plaid sent as a trophy to Henry. The death of King James left the Scottish kingdom to the distraction of a regency and Henry had little to fear further from this source, but the war famished him with a pretext and at the close of the season he withdrew from the continent.

The man who had doue most perhaps to bring Henry into his present frame of mind was Thomas Wolsey, who since 1509 had been attached to the royal chapel and had attained a great in- fluence over the king. This remarkable man, ' 'perhaps the great-

1509-1517] THOKAS WOLSEY 239

est of the long line of ecclesiastical statesmen from Lanfranc to Land,*' was the son of a merchant of Ipswich. He had entered Oxford when a mere child and had been made a Bachelor of Arts at fifteen. He had risen rapidly, his unusual gifts hav- flfoSey^ ing early attracted the attention of the new king, who had a kindly feeling for men who combined with phenomenal industry and energy the art of bringing things to pass. Trained as a churchman, Wolsey was yet a man of surpass- ing worldly wisdom, a politician and a statesman. '*In pene- tration, in aptitude for business and indefatigable labor, he had no equal." The preparation for the French war had been largely committed to his care, and although at heart opposed to the war, he had thrown all his splendid energy into the work of equipping the army, thereby contributing not a little to its successes. He had also accompanied the expedition to the continent, had shared the hardships of the camp before Torouenne, and had become the king's chief and most trusted adviser.

The deep humiliation and anger which Henry felt when once it dawned upon him that his two powerful allies were only playing Theflrst «P0^ ^'^ ^^^^7 ^^ ^^^er to use him as a cat's-paw, trtw^% had given Wolsey his opportunity. He had long woiaey, mi. believed that the true interests of England as well as her dignity lay on the side of a French alliance, and he at once gave all his attention to securing this object, with the result that in a short time he not only brought about an advantageous peace, but had further secured the friendship of France by the marriage of Louis XII. and Henry's youngest sister, Mary Tudor. Henry was delighted with the success of Wolsey 's plans, and showered upon him a succession of honors and preferments which would have turned the head of a smaller man; in 1514 making him bishop of Lincoln, and in 1515, archbishop of York and chancellor. In 1517, also, he used his influence to secure for his favorite the cardinal's cap and had him appointed papal legate for England. Wolsey now had a free hand, and for the next fifteen years practically shaped and directed the affairs of England both at home and abroad.

Louis XII., unfortunately, did not long survive hia Tudat

JMO THB MONABOHY SUPBEKE [anrTm.

marriage, and his death, within three months, brought the first diplomatic trinmph of Wolsey to naught. Francis of Angoal^me The9ee(md Succeeded to the French throne, January 1, 1515; a J^^J^ man fully as ambitious as Louis and with all the fire iFoteey. and energy of a youth of twenty-two in addition* His first exploit was to recover the lost ground of France in northern Italy, winning the brilliant victory of Marignano over the Swiss mercenaries of the duke of Milan. The great powers aepumbcr,' at oucc took alarm ; but the death of Ferdinand early the next year and the succession of Maximilian's grandson, Charles of Burgundy, to the Spanish throne, as well as the approaching reversion of the Hapsburg interests in the east, more than offset any fear of France which may have arisen from the success of Francis at Marignano. Wolsey, true to his policy of favoring the weaker party, succeeded in bringing about a new alliance of England with France, arranging that Toumay should be restored for 600,000 crowns, and that Henry's London, Oe- infant daughter, Mary, should marry the infant son of Francis. The Scottish allies of France, also, were not forgotten, and finally the new pope, Leo X., the emperor, and Charles of Spain, were persuaded to enter the peace.

In January 1519 all the plotting and scheming of old ^'Kaiser Max*' came to an end, and he followed Ferdinand, his rival and master in craft, to the grave. In June, Charles of rfaleScMon. Spain, the grandson of both Ferdinand and Maxi- milian and heir to their combined wealth in political resources, succeeded to the imperial honor as Charles V.

The vast increase of power of the Spanish house made the alliance of Henry of England more important to the French Comumngof sovereign than ever. But the new emperor also ciwS-ies^anSi realized the importance of the friendship of England, France, ^nd just as eagerly sought for an alliance with Henry. Wolsey, however, who was still anxious to keep the peace of Europe, sought by holding both suitors at arm's length to preserve a sort of balance between them and postpone the approaching war indefinitely. Interviews were arranged for Henry with each monarch. In May 1520, Charles visited Henry at Canterbury;

ISSO-VSSn] FIELD OF TH£ CLOTH OF QOLD 241

and shortly after Henry and Francis met in the neighborhood of Cakis, where in a continual round of tournaments, feasts and pageants, glitter and wastefulness, known as the *'Field of the Cloth of Gold," each monarch attempted to outdo the other in giving evidences of gracious good will and confidence. CMhof Yet the famous meeting had hardly broken up, before Henry again met Charles at Gravelines. The ingenuity of Wolsey, however, was not equal to the task of keeping the two monarchs from flying at each other, and the next year, April, 1521, Francis invaded almost simultaneously the territories of Burgundy and Navarre. Wolsey's policy now was to keep England out of the quarrel as long as possible. But the com- mercial interests of England in the Netherlands could not be ignored, and a second visit of Charles to England resulted in a formal alliance with Spain and Burgundy, and the appearance of an English army in France.

Wolsey, however, was no more in sympathy with the Spanish alliance than in 1511. When Francis was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia in 1525, he saw with alarm the grow- ^ISm^^tIu. ^^S power of Charles V., and set himself to work to persuade Henry to throw his weight into the other scale for the purpose of maintaining the balance of power. This was not a difficult thing to do, for Henry's arms had accomplished little or nothing in his direct attacks upon France, and the people were growing restless under the increasing load of taxation. Henry, moreover, was getting tired of his Spanish wife and was inclined to treat all her friends as his enemies. In 1527 the troops of Charles V. stormed Borne, captured the pope, Clement VII., and after an exhibition of lawless violence which shocked Europe, threw the venerable head of the Christian church into prison. Henry, who was still a zealous Catholic, resented the personal indignity to the pope and sent a formal protest to Charles. He was, therefore, once more in a mood to listen to his minister, and consented for the third time to enter into a French alliance.

The third alliance with France greatly increased the unpopu- larity of Wolsey. He had never been loved by the people, and had always been more or less hated by the nobles who had been

243 THE HONABCHT SUPBEICE [Bnsr TIIL

irritated by his pride and magnificence^ but feared him because of his influence with the king. There was also a lingering hostility

to France among the nobles, who cherished the old wDuSrity!^ traditions of the Hundred Years* War, and could not

take kindly to the French sympathies of the court. The Commons also had their grievances, for the chancellor had little use for a parliament in his system. He believed that a king ought to be able to rule without the aid of his people and regarded the calling of a parliament as a confession of weakness on the part of the crown and a sonrce of annoyance and vexation. For the first eight years of his chancellorship, he had managed to get along without any parliaments at all; but the burden of the French war had forced the king to appeal to the people, and Wolsey in the king's name, but against his own inclination, had asked for the enormous grant of £800,000; and although parlia- ment had given him only about one-quarter of the amount, the increased burden upon the people was sufficient to call forth a storm of satire and invective against the unpopular minister. In 1525, the king again attempted to raise money by what he called

**an amicable loan," which was really the old benevo- cabie loaji," lence. Only in a new guise. Englishmen everywhere

objected; in many places their ill-humor expressed itself in rioting and acts of mob violence. Even Henry at last saw the impossibility of collecting the money and right royally remitted any further payment. Wolsey it seems had opposed both the tax and the amicable loan, but had been overruled by the king. His office, however, compelled him to superintend the levy, and thus the people had come to look upon him as responsible for the misdoing of their king.

With the church, over which the position of papal legate gave Wolsey great power, he was no more popular than with barons

and Commons. He saw the need of reform, but pro- ^churc^ posed to reform, not the doctrines of the church, nor

the relations of the church to the papacy, but the daily life of the clergy. He was also in sympathy with the new educational ideals which had been brought into England by Colet and others, and sought to convert the funds of useless and decayed

1684-1S87J THE SUCCESSION 243

monasterioB, of which there were a great many in England at the time, into the foundations of schools and colleges. This great work was fairly begun in 1524 in the founding of Cardinal College at Oxford and a grammar school at Ipswich. Like everything else that Wolsey touched, these foundations were established upon a scale of magnificence unprecedented ; but unfortunately Wolsey was so busily occupied in many things that he had time to carry forward his plans of reform just far enough to alarm the shortsighted and not far enough to win the confidence of those who wished for more sweeping results.

Thus Wolsey stood in the unenyiable position of a great leader without a ^following, who is feared by all, but trusted by none. It required only a sign from the king for all parties to 22J^5J^ combine for his overthrow. This sign was given soon after the conclusion of the third alliance with France, but it was due to no fault of Wolsey' s. One by one the possible Yorkist claimants of the throne had been removed. Even the collateral branches of the Beaufort line had not been safe from the ruthless jealousy of the king, when once the succession was in question. The succession in fact was always Henry's most sensitive point. In late years, moreover, the fatality which had attended the children of Catharine began to prey upon a con- science which had had at best but a poor training, and was liable to the morbid sensitiveness of a superstitious nature: p^siSe He began, therefore, to question the validity of the papal dispensation which had authorized him to marry his brother's widow. Henry's tender conscience, moreover, was greatly reinforced by a violent passion which he had formed for a young lady of the court, Anne Boleyn, a granddaughter of the earl of Surrey, victor of Flodden. The unfortunate Catharine, therefore, was plainly in the way; and, although she had always been a faithful wife and most unselfishly devoted to her husband's interests, with characteristic willfulness, Henry set himself to get rid of her by invoking the technicalities of the Canon Law.

The matter was laid before Wolsey who naturally opposed a project which promised complications from which the wisest might shrink. But Henry was stubbornly bent upon his purpose

£44 THE HONABOHY SUPBEKB [HnnnrYlli.

and Wolsej, against judgment and conscience, consented to serve his master. In 1527 the king appealed directly to Pope Clement, asking him to relieve him of the bond which Julius II. and the ' had sanctioned. Clement, however, was not free to act. Charles V., the nephew of Catharine, who resented Henry's project as a personal affront, was in possession of the Holy City, and the pope was his captive. In Germany, also, where the Beformation was making rapid strides, the sup- port and friendship of Charles was more necessary to the pope than ever. Yet on the other hand the pope feared to offend Henry; he knew the character of the man and did not wish to make him an enemy. He therefore chose the hardly less danger- ous plan of delay and noncommittal.

It was Wolsey's policy, however, to force an immediate

decision from the pope, and he accordingly pressed for permission

to hear the case in his legatine court. Clement could

Thetri(d, j^qI refuse and dispatched Cardinal Campeggio to act

with Wolsey. But Campeggio's movements were so

dilatory that the trial was not fairly opened until June 1529.

While Campeggio was thus wearing out the patience of Henry by

his policy of obstruction and delay, Catharine, satisfied that she

was not to have just treatment in any court in which Wolsey

presided, appealed directly to Borne in hope of securing a hearing

.before the pontiff himself. When, therefore, Clement at last

interfered and summoned the whole case to his own tribunal,

Henry's disgust passed to angry defiance. lie know that ho had

little to hope from the pope and took his action as equivalent to

an adverse decision.

Up to this point Henry had regarded himself as a most loyal son of the church. He had even entered the lists against the German Luther, answering Luther's attack on the Wo£^%9(K s®^^^ sacraments of the church in a reply character- istically violent and dogmatic, called the "Defense of the Seven Sacraments," in which he had upheld the divine origin of the papacy and the authority of the pope in matters of doctrine. The pope, Leo X., pleased by the high quality of the champion, if not by the quality of his work, had bestowed upon

15S0] FALL OF W0L8ET 245

him the title of ^^Defender of the Faith/' thereby much elating the royal theologian, since now he had a title as high sounding as that of the ''most Christian" king of France or the ''Catholic" king of Spain. But all was now forgotten in a blaze of wrath against the pope who had dared to thwart his plan of getting rid of his nnwelcome wife. His first step was to attack the legate of his own making. Wolsey was in no way responsible for what had taken place; but he was the nearest and most conspicnons repre- sentative of the papal dignity. The instrument, moreover, which Henry selected for making the attack was the old Statute of Praemunire, which it was claimed by the crown advisers Wolsey had violated in acting as papal legate. The attack was as mean as the method was unjust and unfair; for Henry himself had secured the appointment for Wolsey and had practically thrust it upon him. Wolsey, however, knew the temper of the king too well to think of resistance; he knew also too well the temper and envy of those who surrounded him to think that he could secure a fair trial in any court of the kingdom, and gracefully accepting his fate, confessed his fault and acknowledged himself liable to the full penalties of the law. Henry was somewhat mollified by the humble spirit of his once splendid minister, and after allowing him to endure many petty annoyances at the hands of obsequious servants, finally issued a formal .pardon, restoring with it a part of Wolsey's property to the amount of £6,000. Wolsey was then sent north to resume his humbler duties of archbishop of York. Here he spent the spring and summer of 1530, but his spirit was broken and his health rapidly gave way. His enemies, chief among whom was Thomas Howard, now duke of Norfolk, and Anne Boleyn, who made Wolsey responsible for the failure of the divorce, still pursued him with a vindictiveness which was to be satisfied only by his death. Wolsey, when the first note of alarm had been sounded, with the purest motive had sent an appeal l^ a secret agent to Francis, asking him to intercede in his behalf. The message, however, had fallen into the hands of Thomas Howard, and was now used as a basis for a new and more serious charge, that of treason. The fallen chancellor was at once seized and hurried south with the Tower of London as his destination.

246 ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ENGLAND [Bnsr Tm.

He was abeady a dying man. When he reached Leicester Abbey his strength was failing so rapidly that his captors could take him no farther. He died on the 29th of November, 1530, worn out by toil, broken by the sense of disgrace; '*a very wretch replete with misery."

CHAPTER m

THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ENGLAND

HENRY VOL, 15aO-JK9

The universal recognition of the authority of the pope by the states of western Europe, is a marked feature of the later Middle Ages. The lines, however, which defined the limits of forrwouin that authority, had never been clearly drawn, and this uncertainty had frequently led to serious quarrels between the popes and the different sovereigns of Europe. In England in particular not only had the temporal sovereignty of the pope as implied in the tribute of John, been expressly repudiated by a parliament of Edward III., but the ecclesiastical authority of the pope, although recognized in a general way, had been frequently resented in application as an unwarranted interference in the affairs of the kingdom. England in fact had been prepared for open revolt by a long series of events which dated back to the thirteenth century She had long had her chronic quarrel with the papal idea as it was embodied in the appellate jurisdiction of the Boman Curia and in the claim of the pope to a voice in the disposal of English livings. The Hundred Years' War, which had strengthened English national life, had indirectly affected tho attitude of the English people toward a system which was built upon the older imperial idea; an idea which ignored, if it did not directly deny, the idea of the nation. The Great Schism, also, which for so many years had divided the Christian world against itself, had seriously weakened the idea of the one family of Christian men united in the one papal head.

Other events taking place far remote from England had also

THE NEW LEARNING 247

prepared her people for the same result. The remarkable series of inyentions and discoveries which mark the close of the Middle Ages had greatly stimulated and enlarged the intellectual life of Ihe times. Novel and startling ideas were promulgated about science and art, about theology, about God and nature and man; a revolt against all the existing order found voice, took form, and was supported by an ever increasing constituency.

In its first form this revolt was intellectual, largely negativOi and manifested itself mostly in a desire to break away from old canons and old restraints ; the human mind faced the JJJ^^U^^^ unknown sea and in the wild, fierce joy of freedom thought only of throwing overboard chart and compass. Then men began to seek practical results in newer and better methods of education. Yet at the close of the first decade of the sixteenth century there had been no formal break with the old system. Pope Leo himself could be a humanist and deeply sympathize with the work of the Italian scholars and still be regarded as worthy to be a pope.

It was in this phase that the new learning had first reached England in the reign of Henry VIL Neither Grocyn, nor First phase Linacre, nor Dean Colet, nor Erasmus, nor Sir Thomas gTr^^rmo- More, thought of overthrowing the established order. England, They wanted reformation, not revolution. Hence they gave their thought to founding schools and colleges; they attacked the wealth of the clergy, the useless lives of the monastic orders, and exposed in unanswerable satire, as in Erasmus's ** Colloquy on Pilgrimages," the violations of common sense which masqueraded under the guise of religion in some of the prevalent superstitions. As in Italy, intelligent leaders of the church, men like Cardinal Morton and Cardinal Wolsey, gave these earnest men their support and sympathy, openly acknowl- edged the need of reform, and used their influence to promote it in a moderate way.

Such reformers, however, moved too slowly to control or even direct the rapid tide of events. Great and far-reaching social changes were preparing men's minds for a new order. From the new world which had been uncovered beyond the seas, streams of

248 ECCLESIASTICAL BETOLT OF BNGLAKD [HnnVlIL

precions metal very early began to ponr into Europe, vastly increas- ing the volume of coin in circulation, stimulating all forms of

industry, expanding commerce, and appealing to all the eSanacB. wild, adventurous spirits of the age through the most

ignoble of human passions, the lust for gold. Prices rose enormously; the distress and actual suffering increased pro- portionately of those who were still held under the older social forms, who by the survival of feudal law were shut out from any share in the increasing prosperity ; and soon vagrancy and all the other accompaniments of economic revolution made their appearance. England had already advanced far beyond the rest of Europe in the gradual lapse of villainage and the development of a free yeomanry. But she was handicapped by a vast popula- tion of free poor, who lived as tenants upon the estates of the great landowners and by reason of their very freedom were now exposed to the greed of rapacious landlords who in the mad rush for wealth did not hesitate to turn their tenants adrift by thousands in order to use their lands for more remunerative forms of production. The wool trade particularly had rapidly developed during the century, and when the rise in prices began to unsettle the old values, the fever of speculation struck the English rural landlords ; they went wild over sheep raising. Vast areas were taken from cultivation for the sheepwalk; the old cultivators of the soil were not needed and were everywhere turned into the highways to beg, or left to drift into the cities to join the swelling population of the slums. Here then was soil well prepared; here also were seeds of revolt against the old order, everywhere scattered broadcast. This was the moment which Henry selected for forcing his quarrel upon the pope.

After the fall of "Wolsey, Henry adopted a new policy in the treatment of the nation. Thus far Edward IV. could not have Henry takes ^^^ moro indifferent to public opinion; but now with iiufJhi»^ the incoming of the new chancellor, Sir Thomas More, confidence. Henry deliberately adopted the policy of taking the people into his confidence, and henceforth does nothing without a parliament.

The parliament of 1529, the famous ^'Reform Parliament,"

1681] THE BEFOBM PABLIAMElTr 249

began its first sitting within a week after the condemnation of Wolsey. The leaders had evidently been well tutored in the part which they were expected to play and at once began qttheiu- the attack. They complained that the laws of the mentupon church were enacted without reference to the civil au- thority ; they complained of the money which men had to pay for the administration of the sacraments, of the vexatious annoyance caused by the snmmoners and by the long journeys to the archbishops' courts, of the way in which the episcopal examiners put to accused persons cunningly devised questions in order to entrap them into heretical admissions, of the abuses incident to conferring benefices upon children, of the cost of obtaining probate of wills, and of the excessive fees. Henry in reply asked the parliament to frame acts necessary to remedy the evils of which it complained, and sent the petition to Archbishop Warham. Warham laid the paper before his bishops, and elicited a reply which displayed a singular obtuseness to the peril of the church and an equally singular ignorance of English institutions. Summed up, the reply meant that the churchmen acknowledged no authority in the making of their laws save the Holy Scripture and the Catholic Church, and that the king would do well to "temper his own laws into conformity with these."

Here then was presented a very definite issue; but an issue in which all the advantages lay on the king's side because he was sure to have the parliament and the nation with him. BMTirsfirst Henry saw his advantage, and proposed to put the supremacy of state law over church law to a definite test by declaring that the whole body of the clergy who had acknowledged Wolsey's legatine authority, had been guilty of violating the Statute of Praemunire and were thus liable to the penalties of imprisonment and forfeiture. The convocation had no thought of resistance; smitten with panic, they thought only of submission in order to avert the next blow, the nature of which ihey might imagine. On the 24th of January, 1531, convocation voted to pay into the royal treasury the sum of £118,000 as a penalty for the alleged crime. Bat Henry was not to be satisfied with a half victory, and refused to accept the fine, unless the

250 E00LE8IASTI0AL BETOLT OF BNOLAKD [HsnrVIIL

ohtircli ehotild definitely recognize him as its snpreme head. Two weeks hiter, therefore, they formally but reluctantly acknowledged him to be **the singular protector and only snpreme governor of the English Church, and as far as the law of Christ permits, its supreme head."

The effect of this act of convocation was virtually to give to Henry the authority which the pope had heretofore wielded in the

English Church. Still Henry was not yet willing to «r the sever big kingdom altogether from the papacy. The

Peter's pence and the first fruits continued to be regularly paid, and the doctrinal authority of the universal church recognized. So far the king had merely denied the appellate jurisdiction of the Holy See, and secured the recognition of the civil authority over the acts of convocation.

Parliament, in the meantime, had taken up the ax also, and in response to Henry's request brought forth a series of acts which

struck at the abuses that most nearly affected the aeuof^ classes which its membership represented. Beyond

the walls of Westminster, however, the reform move- ment was rapidly assuming volume and strength, soon to place it beyond the power of king or parliament to control. The revolt of England was in fact developing along three distinct but con- verging lines: First , the king was moving toward a declaration of the complete independence of the English Church and the

reorganization of the English ecclesiastical system upon ther^orm a purely national basis; second^ the parliament was

interested in the reform of those practices of the church which distressed the laity in particular; but thirds a far more serious threat to the established order, there was a rapidly increasing body of people, thoughtful and devout, but active and determined, who had caught tboir inspiration from Luther and his followers, possibly from some lingering fires of LoUardy, and had begun an attack upon the whole system of accepted church doctrine. Their position was a strong one, for they represented the quickening conscience of England, the protest of the better thought of the people against the irreligion and heartless material* ism of the age, with which unfortunately the clerical body in the

1634-1080] TYNDALE 251

inteFests of their special privileges and their vast wealth had Buffered themselves to be identified.

Of the leaders of this third movement, the most important was William Tjndale, who had been a student at the great

English universities and there come under the theEngiuh influence of the new learning. His active, practical

mind very early conceived the idea of giving the results of the ripened scholarship of the age to the people in the form of an accurate translation of the Scriptures, and in 1524 he went to the continent for this purpose. Two years later his octavo edition of the New Testament was ready, and some three thousand copies were sent over to England. The translation of the Pentateuch followed in 1530. The friends of Tyndale in the meantime had organized an '^Association of Christian Brothers*' who made it their task to bring his translations into direct contact with the people by a wide distribution.

Henry had no sympathy with this phase of the reform, for he hated Luther with all the intolerance of a narrow and obstinate

mind and was suspicious of everything that smacked theoovem- of the Lutheran flavor. The bishops, also, had been thereUgioua quick to take alarm at the appearance of Tyndale^s

New Testament and published their disapproval of his translations. But while Wolsey remained in power, he had stayed their hands from offering personal violence to the men who were thus using the Scriptures to undermine the authority of the church. More, however, who felt the necessity of vindicating the political reform, with which he was in sympathy, from the charge of any complicity in the attack on the doctrines of the church, marshalled all the machinery of government against the '^Christian Brothers" and began a vigorous attempt to uproot the spreading heresies. While the king, therefore, still bent upon his divorce, was striving to frighten the pope into compliance by the threat of severing the ecclesiastical system of England from that of the continent, while the parliament was seeking to relieve the people from the burdens of mortuaries and the neglect of plu- ralists. More had lighted the fires at Smithfield and began sending the clearest sighted advocates of the reform to the stake.

252 ECCLESIASTICAL BEVOLT OF ENGLAND [HmT VUL

Between Henry and the pope matters had speedily come to 8 deadlock. The pope refused to be bullied and announced his

determination not to yield. Henry, at a loss as to the totheunir next step, yet fully determined as ever to have his way, . appealed to the universities of Europe for an opinion upon the crucial question, whether the pope was competient to allow a man to marry his deceased brother^s widow; that is, Was a papal bull superior to the plain declaration of the Scriptures? The universities took up the question, and amused themselves with it after their ponderous fashion, and finally gave a decision, each in accordance with the political preferences of their respective sovereigns, and so settled nothing. After three years more of vexatious waiting, Henry found that he was no nearer his goal

than ever, and turned again to his Reform Parliament €f the Reform for comfort. Seeking through it to renew his attack

upon the pope. In 1532 it abolished benefit of clergy for all below the rank of deacon; it also limited to twenty years the period for which lands could be burdened with the obligation of paying for masses for the dead. Convocation was compelled to agree to constitute no new canons without the king's consent and to submit the existing law to a committee of revision made up of laymen and ecclesiastics. Then the parliament proceeded to threaten the pope more directly by empowering Henry to suspend the payments of Peter's pence and annates whenever he saw fit.

Thus far, while the Commons had been practically unanimous in its support of the king, in the Upper House the clergy by

reason of their great strength had exerted a powerful JJ*'"*^'* conservative influence, so that at times the consent of

Cranmer, '

the Lords to measures of reform had been secured only with great difficulty; but during the year. Archbishop Warham died and Henry hastened to replace him by a very different man, Thomas Cranmer. In 1528 Cranmer was a lecturer on divinity at Cambridge. By more chance the young divine had been thrown into the company of Gardiner, one of Henry's ministers, and had modestly proposed to hitn the plan of laying Henry's difficulties before the universities. Henry with bluntness characteristic of the

1088] BIBTH OF ELIZABETH 253

man ordered Granmer to be sent for at once, declaring '^This man, I trow, has the right sow by the ear,*' and committed to him the presentation of his cause before the umversities of Europe. Warbam died while Cranmer was on the continent, and Henry named him for the vacant see.

Henry now had an ally in the place where one was most needed, and by his help proceeded at once to cut the troublesome knot presented by the Canon Law. At the beginning of 22^*2?^^ 1533 parliament had formally abolished the right of appeal from the English ecclesiastical court to Rome, and Cranmer by direction of the king at once took up the question of the divorce, and although Catharine denied the authority of the archbishop's court, the marriage was straightway declared illegal. Henry had already married Anne Boleyn early in the year; the marriage was now announced and the coronation of the new queen celebrated with a state and magnificence befitting the defiant mood of the king.

The divorce and the marriage brought on the crisis. The pope annulled the findings of Cranmer's court and commanded Henry to put away Anne Boleyn before the end of J2««J*J^ September under pain of excommunication. Henry, however, had no thought of yielding. He answered threat with threat: If the pope should not cancel his decree within nine weeks, Henry would declare the complete inde- pendence of England of the papal system.

At last the fateful month of September opened. On the 7th the queen gave birth to a daughter whom they christened after jj^^^ - Henry's mother, Elizabeth. In the spring, parliament leSSiiw' passed an Act of Succession which settled the crown 7,1638. upon the children of Henry and Anne, and in the

autumn interpreted it by a second act which further authorized Henry to compel his subjects to take an oath to support the Act of Succession. Any one, moreover, who should utter a word to the disparagement of the king's marriage or of his heirs, should be guilty of misprisioti of treason^ and be liable to complete forfeiture of goods and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. More and Fisher, the venerable bishop of Bochester, refused to take

254 E00LE8IA8TI0AL BBTOLT OF EKGLAKD [hbist TUL

the oath. Fisher was already in the Tower and More was sent to join him.

In the meanwhile, the pope had refused to cancel his decree, and nothing was left for Henry, unless he would retire from The Act of ^^® conflict and restore his injured wife, but to take ^XSSSSy* ^® ^^ ^*^^P- * Accordingly, March 31, 1534, the con- '^'^ vocation of Canterbury abjured the papal supremacy;

the convocation of York passed a similar decree before May 15; and in November parliament formally decreed that the king was to be henceforth accounted ^Hhe only supreme head on earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Bcclesia.^^

In order to reconstitute the church it was necessary further to pass supplementary acts, which also date from this eventful Theeoroi- 7®^ *^^ ^^^7 ^® regarded as corollaries of the Act of ^Ad^f^^^ Supremacy. By these the annates were added to the Supremacy, regular revenues of the crown, the king was empowered to nominate bishops, and the chapter enjoined to elect his nominees under the penalties of Praemunire. Thomas Cromwell although The reermst^ ^ ^^J^^^ ^^8 named vicar-general of the kingdom, a if^'ETMHeh Position which made him president of convocation and Church, brought the legislative power of that body directly under the king's control. All the bishops of England, also, were suspended that they might be reappointed under the new law. No attempt, however, was yet made to change the doctrines of the church. Tlio pope was no longer recognized, but the English Church was still Catholic in local government, worship, and doctrine.

The Act of Supremacy was received generally without oppo- sition. The Carthusian monks of the London Charter House dared to protest, and twelve of them were promptly the Act of hanged as a warning to others who might be of their

Supremacy. ^ xi,- i • tJ i.- • i u

way of thinkmg. More shming marks, however, were offered by the two distinguished prisoners in the Tower, Fisher and More. Fisher had begun his career as confessor of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII., and had faithfully served the Tudors for three generations. Few men had exerted a wider or nobler influence. The other victim was a typical product of

U78-188B] THOMAS OBOMWELL 255

the Benaissance. Born in 1478, the son of a crown justice, he was early bred to the kw. At Oxford he came under the influence of Golet and Erasmus, and became deeply imbued with the spirit of the newer criticism. The "Utopia," a sort of sixteenth century "Looking Backward," which sought to expose the eyils of the existing order, and at the same time to set forth an ideal community to be found somewhere in "no man's land," entitled More to a fair place in literature. He also won a noble reputation as a lawyer, and as speaker of the House of Commons sufficiently proved his spirit by boldly attacking Wolsey, when Wolsey was in the heyday of his power. Henry at one time was very fond of More, whose refinement, ready wit, and gracious, open nature made him altogether a very lovable character, and now really desired to save his old friend. But More had raised an issue not with Henry alone, but with the whole drift of the last ten years of English history, and Henry was powerless; the grim logic of his position virtually forced him to destroy these the truest friends of his youth, the noblest ornaments of his reign. Fisher was executed on June 22, 1535, and More on July 6, following.

It is now time to notice the man who perhaps more than any other is responsible for the later acts of Henry, Thomas Cromwell,

"The Hammer of the Monks," and "the first great Crnmweit, Eufflish Secretary of State." He was bom at Putney mercfthe in the year of Bosworth, the son of an ironmaster.

After spending some years abroad as a soldier in Italy, and as a merchant in Antwerp, he returned to London to begin business as an attorney, money lender, and wool speculator. Here he fell in with Wolsey and entered into his employ, collect- ing the revenues of the archicpiscopal see of York and also con- ducting the various matters connected with the dissolution of the monasteries and the founding of Wolsey's college at Oxford. After Wolsey^s fall he entered directly into the service of the king and soon became one of his most influential ministers. He was able, industrious, resolute, and self-willed. He can hardly be called a Protestant, for he probably had no personal religion; he favored the divorce and did not hesitate to push the king on to a

256 EC0LB8IASTI0AL BSVOLT OF ENGLAND [HnrnTTin.

separation with Borne in order to attain it. He managed the parliament in the king's interests, ruled in the Privy Gonncil, and fell heir to all the hitter hatred which the nohles once felt for Wolsey.

Cromwell's early experience in Wolsey 's service had brought him into contact with the life of the monasteries upon their

most unattractive side; and it was not difficult for him and the to persuade Henry that they were useless and that

their wealth ought to be brought under the control of the crown. As a preliminary move, no doubt designed to justify the meditated spoliation, he sent out a commission in 1535 to visit the various houses and report on their condition. The report, known as the ** Black Book of Monasteries," was ready when parliament met the next year, and upon its representations parliament determined to abolish all but about thirty of the larger houses.

While Henry was thus ploughing his way at home, ruthlessly overturning the traditions of a thousand years, Europe looked on ^^ aghast. The executions of More and Fisher were

rest. RiMnos received with deep disapproval even by the Germans,

who regarded the English movement as a spurious reformation, drawing its inspiration from politics and trade rather than religion. The pope, also, set about preparing a bull of deposition; even Francis had turned against Henry, and could he and Charles ever agree to act in harmony, a league of western Europe for the vindication of the church and the overthrow of the mad king of England might become a possibility. England, also, was uneasy. The unrest had begun to manifest itself in various ways. An epileptic nun had appeared in Kent, who predicted the king's speedy death, and had deceived even Fisher by her spurious revelations. She was executed in 1534; her fall had been the occasion of Fisher's original imprisonment in the Tower. In 1535 intrigue was prevalent and serious outbreak threatened; but the death of Catharine the next year, by removing the hope of those who were expecting Charles to interfere, greatly diminished the danger of any possible outbreak. The people, however, particularly in the north, were becoming embittered by

1688, 1S87] THE COUNCIL OF THE NOBTH 2S7

a series of special grieyances, some real but most of them fancied, growing partly out of the attack upon the monasteries, partly out of the unpopularity of Cromwell with the nobility, partly out of an unfortunate law known as the Statute of Uses which prevented landowners from making charges on their estates for the benefit of younger sons or daughters, partly out of the custom of calling suits to London for a hearing instead of allowing them to be settled at the county courts, and partly out of the increasing displacement of agriculture by sheep farming. A series of revolts

broke out in October of 1536 and continued through aaeofOraee, the winter, extending over Lincolnshire, Yorkshire,

Cumberland, and Westmoreland, in which the clergy, the nobles, the gentry, and landless poor were generally implicated. The revolt in Yorkshire, known as the "Pilgrimage of Grace,'* became really formidable, and although it also failed and the leaders, among whom were the abbots of Fountains, Jervaulz, Barlings, and Sawley, wore put to death, the protest was npt altogether lost. The hated Statute of Uses still remained on the statute books, but the courts interpreted the law more generously.

A special committee of the Privy Council, also, known of the North as the Council of the North, were appointed to try

cases such as were ordinarily brought to London, holding sittings daring four months of each year in the cities beyond the Humber. The president of the council was virtually governor in the north in the king^s name.

The northern risings had failed not because of any lack of people, for at one time some thousands were actually in arms, but

because the insurgents could not find a claimant to set utvi^^ up against Henry, about whom the disaffected elements

might rally. In 1538, however, the government sud« denly became aware of a widely extended plot which centered in the two Yorkist families of the Poles and the Courtenays. Henry Courtenay was the grandson of Edward IV. by his daughter Cath* arine. He was marqui^ of Exeter and possessed great power in the west. The Poles were Represented by the sons of that Reginald Pole who had been killed aji Pavia in 1525 and of Margaret, the daughter of the duke of Clarence, the countess of Salisbury. The eldest son

2S8 ECCLESIASTICAL BEYOLT OF ENGLAND [BnrrTIIX..

was Henry, Lord Montague, a warm friend of the marqnis of Exeter, and married to a Neville. The second son was Reginald Pole who had entered the church and was once a great favorite with the king. At first he had been in sympathy with the divorce, but like More and Fisher had refused to follow Henry in seceding from the great ecclesiastical family of Europe and had written a treatise upon ^^Ecclesiastical Unity.'' The pope was pleased and made the author a cardinal. Henry was not pleased and had the author attainted. The exact extent of the plot is not known nor the degree to which the several leaders were implicated. The cardinal had entered the pope's service and was his trusted messenger in his endeavor to rouse Charles V. to draw the sword against England. The marquis of Exeter had assisted the king in suppressing the ** Pilgrimage of Grace" but had openly avowed his distaste for the business. Some treasonable preparations, also, were unearthed in Cornwall. A younger Pole, Geoffrey, offered evidence against his eldest brother and his mother, the venerable countess of Salisbury, who were probably more or less in correspondence with the exiled cardinal. It was known also that Charles was gathering a mysterious fleet of two hundred sail in the Schelde. Henry acted with his usual ruthless energy. Exeter and Montague were beheaded and Lady Salisbury was sent to the Tower, although she was not put to death until 1541. The risings led directly to the suppression of the remaining monasteries. The work began in 1536 in the voluntary surrender

of the great House of Fumess. Other houses followed of thegrmt the example of Furness when it was known that the king

stood ready to make liberal provisions for the future sup- port of tlie inmates. Their chattels were sold and their lands, yield- ing a revenue estimated at £6,000,000, were turned over to the king. Here was an enormous wealth placed in the hands of the government, but the keen politicians who surrounded Henry were Dbfwwdi of *^ "^ ^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ disposal ; they proposed to forestall vwnun^^^ reaction by making the nation a partner with the asurics. government in the spoliation of the church. A part was applied to the creation of six new bishoprics; a part was used in coast fortifications; a yet greater part passed into tb^

1685-1580] DISPOSAL OF K0KA8TEBY LAKD8 259

hands of the new families, the RosseUs, the Seymours, tkt) Dudleys, the Cecils, and the Cavendishes, the new reform nobility whom Henry had called around him as a balance to the old nobility; but the greatest part went out in small holdings, sold off for a song to the neighboring gentry, so that twenty years later when the reaction came in under Mary, and her advisers talked of restoring the monasteries, it was said that more than twenty thousand families were intorested in the retention of th'ese lands. Nothing could have been devised more certain to fix permanently the results of Henry's reforms. In another way, also, the suppression of the monasteries strengthened the govern- ment by removing the abbots from the House of Lords, and thereby assuring the lay element of a permanent majority over the spiritual peers. Henry, also, was careful to select for his six new bishoprics men upon whose sympathies he could depend.

With the suppression of the monastic houses, the establish- ment of a lay majority in the House of Lords, and the passing away of all possibility of foreigu military interference, the political revolt from Rome may be regarded as accomplished. The doctrinal revolt was yet to come.

CHAPTER IV

THE PROGRESS OF THE REFOBK

BESRT Vm., 1539-15i7 EDWARD n., iS€J-15Sa

At the beginning of the year 1539 Henry was as determined as ever that the doctrines and practices of the English Church should not "vary in any jot from the faith Catholic." But inthertform the ministers of the church had felt the pressure of popular dissatisfaction, and in order to meet the objec- tions of educated people and reach some common ground of agreement with those who were beginning to question the teaching of the church, in 1536 convocation had published a series of articles, ten in number, in which they declared that the Bible and

260 THB PBOOBESS OF THB BEFOBM [RnsTVIii.

the* 'three creeds" were sole authority for all matters of faith, and explained and enjoined as necessary to salvation, the three

sacraments, — baptism, penance, and the sacrament of Sd«/Sw^" the altar. In 1539, also, convocation authorized, and

ordered to be placed in each church, a version of the Scriptures known as the "Great Bible," founded upon the work of Tyndale and Coverdale, Tyndale's fellow in exile. There was, however, an increasing body of people of radical nature who were

not to be satisfied with concessions, who thought that ^2^^ the abjuration of the papal supremacy permitted

them to begin at once an open and violent attack upon the doctrines and practices of the church. The result was to bring out a vigorous reactionary spirit in parliament, which in June 1539 found expression in the famous Six Articles.

This "bloody act," as the radical reformers termed it, neither Catholic nor Protestant, reasserted the supremacy of the king as

under God the head of "the whole church and con-

Th^ Six JiJT^

ticus^june, gregatiou of England," but enjoined the acceptance of transubstantiation, communion in one kind, the celibacy of priests, the observance of "vows of chastity or widowhood," the continuance of private masses, and the practice of auricular con- fession. Death by fire was prescribed as the penalty for denying transubstantiation. Death was also prescribed, although not by fire, for teaching, or preaching, or maintaining in a public court, views contrary to the remaining articles. For those who denied the articles by open act the penalties were likewise severe. The act was to go into effect "after the twelfth day of July."

Henry, in the meanwhile, had wearied of Anne Boleyn as he

had wearied of Catharine, and had listened eagerly to rumors of

gravest misconduct which her enemies were doing all

Crom^cell and ° ,_ ^ -, -r ii i i * ^ ..««

theiAUheran they could to spread. In the early part of 1536 a court of subservient peers had condemned her to death, and she was executed on May 19th. On the 20th Henry married Jane Seymour, to make way for whom, he had been as eager to get rid of the unhappy Anne as he had ever been to get rid of Catharine. But the blight which had rested on Henry's domestic life, was not to be dispelled. The new queen died October 20,

1S87-1640] FAXL OF CBOMWELL 261

1537, haying suryiyed her predecessor little more than a year. On the 12th, howeyer, she had giyen birth to the long-expected heir, afterwards known as Edward VI. Cromwell was then at the height of his power; bat reaction was already setting in and Cromwell, who had gone too far to trim to the shifting wind, saw that only a bold step would saye his work. If an alliance could be made between Henry and Francis and the league of German princes which had been formed at Schmalkalden in 1530 for protection against the emperor, then England need haye no fear of an inyasion by Charles; and if in addition, Henry could be induced to forget his obstinate hatred of the Lutherans, to enter into a marriage alliance with some one of the powerful Qerman houses of the reform party, the wily minister might hope effectually to counteract the growing influence of the men who had engineered the Six Articles through parliament. This was _ Cromwell's plan, and he so &r succeeded as to get

/ourtA Henry's consent to a marriaf^e with Anne, the sister

of the duke of Cleyes, an important prince of the lower Rhine. Henry was not at all pleased with his bride ; yet it would not do to offend the duke of Cleyes upon whom the furtherance of the alliance with Francis rested. The marriage, therefore, in spite of the king's disgust was duly celebrated, January 6, 1540. Then for a time matters moyed smoothly for Cromwell; appar- ently he was more powerful than ever; the enforcement of the Six Articles was suspended, the force of the reaction was stayed.

But Cromwell was playing a dangerous game and the odds were heavy against him. First, Francis definitely announced that Prvmu ^® would not join the Protestant league; then the wdiJiUy, German princes hastened to make their own terms '^ , with Lhe emperor. The enemies of Cromwell, the old conseryative nobility, saw their opportunity and proceeded to make the most of it by turning Henry's wrath upon the luckless minister. Convocation was ordered to declare the marriage null; Cromwell was arrested on a charge of treason, condemned unheard by an Act of Attainder, and hurried to the block.

The fall of Cromwell was the signal that Henry had thrown fiimself into the arms of the party of reaction. The political

262 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM [BintT YIU

head of this party was Thomas Howard, the duke of Norfolk, who had been prominent in the active hostility of the old nobility

to Wolsey and had seen his schemes of family aggran- reactinn. dizement succeed in the coronation of nis niece, Anne Henry and Boleyu, as quecu of England. He had saved himself Hftward, in the fall of the unfortunate Anne, bided his time, and

now again saw a second great minister hurled from his lofty height, whilo a aecond niece, Catharine, the daughter of his brother Edmund, became queen of England.

The enemies of the doctrinal reform well understood what was meant by the failure of Gromweirs scheme of a Protestant The second ^^^^^^e, and set to work in serious earnest to enforce §JS?r? i^« Six Articles, with grim impartiality hurdling to infiutnce. Smithfield the deniers of the royal supremacy and the deniers of the doctrine of transubstantiation. Fortunately, how- ever, the triumph of the Howards was short. Within two years Catharine Howard had followed her cousin Anne Boleyn to the block and upon a similar charge. Yet the reform did not at once recover the lost ground. Henry was not inclined to tamper further with doctrinal matters but preferred to keep things as they were. Cranmer, also, had lost prestige in the fall of Crom- well. Latimer^ the bishop of Ely, who had been the most sincere among the advisers of Henry in helping on the doctrinal reform, had resigned on the passage of the Six Articles, leaving Stephen Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester, a bold and honest advocate of the old doctrines, to direct Henry as his chief ecclesiastical adviser. It was his policy to undermine Cranmer and oppose all further innovations.

While the events of these years were changing the whole future of English history, no less important and far-reaching

changes were taking place in other parts of Britain, Beuiementof and behind the green shores of its neighbor across the

Irish Sea. Wales had been virtually a part of England since the reign of Edward I., but the border counties had been retained in semi-independence, nor had Wales or Chester yet been allowed a representation in parliament. Henry abolished the separate jurisdiction of the marcher lords, enlarging the Welsh

1584-1542] HENRY YIII. AND IRELAND 263

shires and adding five new ones. He also gave Wales twenty-foor representatiTes in parliament, and Chester four, and established at Ludlow a separate council of goyernment, similar to that which he established north of the Humber the next year.

Flodden had so crippled Scotland that the Scots had been able to do little harm to England during the minority of James V.

The hostility of the clergy to Henry's church policy,

however, had greatly strengthened the old French party at the Scottish court, under whose influence the young king had at last reached man's estate and taken as a bride, Mary of the powerful family of Guise. In 1542 the relations of the two courts were strained to the point of war. James invaded England, but the Scottish nobles who were divided among themselves gave the war only a half-hearted support and the whole Scottish army, some ten thousand strong, disgracefully fled at the approach of a few hundred border farmers. This affair of Sol way Moss broke the heart of the proud young king of Scots; he survived his humiliation only a few days, leaving the crown to an infant daughter a week old. The announcement that he had an heir to his crown brought no cheer to the dying king. **The deil take it,'' he exclaimed, "it came with a lass and it will go with a lass!" The "lass" vras Mary Stuart.

In Ireland Henry was pursuing his way with characteristic ruthlessness. In 1534 the Fitzgeralds broke out in open revolt,

occasioned by the arrest of the earl of Kildare. In ^^retawA' ^^^^ ^^^ Leonard Grey suppressed the revolt, and

Henry proceeded to hunt out and destroy every male of the Fitzgerald family. The Irish parliament, which since the Poynings Acts had remained under the control of the English council, supported Henry even to the recognition of his supremacy over the church, forbidding the use of the Irish language, the Irish dress, and the Irish fashion of wearing the hair. Monasteries were abolished, relics and images were destroyed, and English- speaking priests were put in charge of the churches. For the moment Henry was everywhere successful. In 1539 he had possession of most of the island, and in 1541 he changed his title from "Lord of Irelanc}" to "King of Ireland." Henry rewarded

264 THE PR0GBE88 OF THE BEFORM [hskbt YUL

the Irish chiefs who supported him by giving them English titles and the plunder of the Irish monasteries.

In 1543 the long-expected war with Prance broke out, but curiously enough the ally of Henry was the emperor. In England . inmt ^^® overthrow of Cromwell and the increase of the war with power of the Catholic nobility, naturally drew the country toward Charles, while the influence of Francis in Scotland and the repudiation of his earlier promises to Henry, roused again the old latent animosity of the English against the French. Francis, moreover, had put himself outside the pale of sympathy of all Christendom, whether Catholic or Protestant, by making a formal alliance with the Turk. But Charles, true to his Spanish training, was as treacherous as ever, and while Henry was squandering the blood and treasure of his subjects before Boulogne, Charles made a separate treaty with Francis at Cr^py, in which Francis agreed to abandon the Turks and unite with Charles in a joint attack upon Protestantism. Henry in the meantime was left to struggle on alone. He took Boulogne in 1544 and after holding it for two years was able to retire from the war with some dignity, agreeing to surrender the city to the French after eight years upon the payment of 5,000,000 francs. As usual in Henry's continental alliances he had been fooled and betrayed. He had won some advantages but had gained nothing commensurate with the enormous debt in which the war had involved his government.

As soon as peace was assured the king turned his attention to

his wasted treasury. In 1545 he had levied a benevolence, but

this had produced only a small part of the enormous

Later finan- -, t , ^ » At i fi mi

cuiring of sum needed to satisfy the government creditors. Then Henry resorted to the dangerous expedient of tamper- ing with the coinage, reducing the quantity of silver in an ounce of coin first to ten pennyweight and finally to six. In this way Henry was enabled to balance his'accounts with his creditors, but with most disastrous efifects upon the commercial prosperity of the kingdom. The old coins of the realm rapidly passed out of circulation; commercial transactions with foreign countries became almost impossible; prices rose rapidly, while those who

1548-1546] PBOTESTAirr BEACnON 265

depended upon wages or fixed incomes were thrown into great distress. To add to the confusion, Henry discovered a new source of plunder in the confiscation of the chantries, hospitals, colleges, and gilds which piety had once founded, the wealth of which still lay in the control of the church ; and to the vast throng who had been set adrift by the sequestrations of Cromwell, to the greater number who could no longer earn a living at the old wage scale, were now added still another throng of starving idlers, further to depress the wages of the employed and fill the country with beggary and robbery, and the cities with crime and wretchedness. In the meanwhile the breach between the two wings of the reform was constantly widening. The act of 1536 which had Widenina g^^en to the church the Greeds, the Ten Command- t/ierefmm n^^nts, and the Lord's Prayer in English, had been a party. great advance. The publication and authorization of

the Great Bible had been a further advance. But since the fall of Cromwell, the Six Articles had held their bloody sway, and in 1543 Gardiner led a direct attack upon the English Bible, for- bidding the reading of it to ** husbandmen, artificers, and journey- men, and to all women except gentlewomen." In 1546 the heresy hunters even invaded the queen's private circle and carried off to the stake her friend, the gentle Anne Askew.

In 1546, however, the influence of the reactionaries had once more begun to wane. Henry had again attacked the church in

the interests of his depleted treasury. He was also reactum^nd growing suspicious of the Howards in the interests of r^riimir^ Prince Edward. The old Cromwellian party were

represented by Edward Seymour, the earl of Hertford, the little prince's uncle, and by John Dudley, Lord Lisle, son of the finance minister of unsavory memory of Henry VII. 's time. With them, in sympathy at least, also stood Cranmer whose wonderful skill in tnming the time-hallowed Latin prayers of the church into pure and expressive English, had given the church its first English Litany in 1544. Cranmer lacked the moral courage ever to become a leader, but his position of archbishop was one of great influence, and he made a powerful second where bolder spirits led. For two years the king's health had been

966 THE PB0QBES8 OF THE BEFOBK [Hn»rTIIL

declining. His once magnificent constitution was breaking; he had become so weak that he could no longer write his name and was compelled to affix the royal assent to the acts of government by a stamp made for the purpose. Yet the spirit burned as fiercely as ever, and when he learned that Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, had quartered his arms with those of Edward the Confessor, indicating his direct descent from royal blood, the old j^^fjif^fff wrath which had once been so terrible again blazed jSlZi'S" "P- Surrey was sent to the block, and his father, ^^^' Duke Thomas, was also arrested and attainted the day

of his son's execution. But the next day Henry died before the failing hand could seal the act which had condemned his last victim.

The acts of Henry VIII. are the best commentary upon his character. Possibly in the beginning of his reign he was not at heart a bad man. He possessed, however, an inordinate Qf^Henry^'^ vanity, an all-consuming self-love, which under oppo- sition developed into a savage determination always to have his own way, come what might. Fortunately, or unfortu- nately, his quarrel with the church found a sympathetic echo in the national heart, estranged from the pope by an accumulation of grievances which dated back to the thirteenth century. Here lay the strength of a king, who at any other time would have been resisted, if not deposed by his people. He was also strong in the limits which he proposed to set to his work; for Henry's idea of reform, undoubtedly, represented the exact length to which the average Englishman was prepared to go in breaking with the old system. Only so can we explain the acquiescence of the country in his brutality and his tyrannies.

At the time of Henry's death, the son of Jane Seymour was in his tenth year. In character he was all that a prince should be, upright, devout, and seriously intent upon doing good. The one-sided training, however, to which he was sub- jected by his guardians, soon developed traces of his father's self- confidence, harshness, and want of feeling. He became bigoted and snperstitiously devoted to doing the work of God as he understood it.

1547] EDWABD SEYMOUR, LOBD PROTECTOB 267

The death of Surrey and the arrest of Norfolk had left the radical reform party again in control of the council, and although Henry, in his desire to maintain the existing status, m/mr, Liy^ had sought in his will to balance the two parties against January* each other by refusing to give to either a control in the council, the council at once proceeded to make Edward Seymour, the earl of Hertford, Lord Protector, and by empowering him to act even without the council, conferred upon him an authority almost regal. Two weeks later, under the virtuous pretense of carrying out the late king^s wishes, they made Seymour duke of Somerset and John Dudley earl of Warwick, and rewarded other members of the council in the same way with titles and honors.

The protector was undoubtedly a sincere man, a good soldier and of proved courage; but he was also impetuous and con- spicuously lacking in judgment. He offended the SiepnSec^. ^^^^^^ ^7 fortifying the harbor of Boulogne, contrary to the stipulations of the last treaty. He offended the Scots by imperiously demanding the fulfillment of a treaty which they had made with Henry VIII. in 1543, by which the Princess Mary was to marry Edward. And when the Scots refused to make good the agreement, he crossed the border and defeated them in a pitched battle at Musselburgh, or Pinkie Gleugh. The victory brought great glory to the protector, making him the darling of the hour, but roused the whole Scottish nation where before there had been of late a growing sympathy with the English Reformation, and ultimately brought about the marriage of the young queen of Scots with the Dauphin Francis, the very thing which this campaign was designed to avert.

At home also, the protector pursued a like heedless policy. Unlike the most of the politicians who surrounded him, he was sincerely devoted to the reform, but with blind indiffer- or'8 policy euce to consequenccs he proposed to use the power of the state to secure at once what a cooler judgment would have waited for a decade at least to bring about. He virtually sanctioned the very excesses which had been condemned in the Six Articles and on May 4, 1547, announced a general

S68 THE PBO0BES8 OF THB BEFOBM [bpwa»TL

Tisitation for the purification 'of the churches to take effect throaghout England. The decorated windows were to be broken, the walls whitewashed, the images of saint or Savior to be destroyed. Bishops, also, were to be questioned as to their sup- port of the various acts for the abolition of the papal authority and the establishment of the royal supremacy. Protests were made, but they were unheeded. Irresponsible mobs paraded the country roads tricked out in sacred vestments associated in the popular mind with the reverent worship of a thousand years. Images and pictures were dragged out and burned in the midst of blasphemous revelry. Everywhere the most inflammable doctrines were fearlessly preached.

When parliament met in November the radical reformers were in the ascendant. The Six Articles, the various bills of the ParUament- Lancastrian period against Lollards, and the treason acts jy^^JJ^^^ of Henry VIII. , which condenmed a man to death for teeUn-tiAir. calling the king a heretic, were swept away. The profanation of the Eucharist was to be punished by fine and imprisonment, but communion in both kinds was enjoined, nor could the parish priest deny those who reverently desired to com- municate. The shadow of authority in the election of bishops, which Henry VIII. had left to dean and chapter, was also taken away. Bishops henceforth were to be commissioned solely by the crown without any fiction of election.

The towns generally were in sympathy with these radical measures of council and parliament ; the country, where new ideas naturally gain ground more slowly, at least acquiesced. the reform The government, however, seemed bent upon making trouble for itself, and proceeded to reenact the law of 1545, thus placing at its disposal the property of the hospitals, colleges, and chantries throughout England which had escaped Henry VIII. A great show was made of establishing new schools out of the proceeds, but only eighteen or twenty were ever founded, and of these many were left upon such meager founda- tions that they were practically useless. Three hospitals also are to be ascribed to the munificence of the protectorate.

At this point it might be expected confiscations would stop.

1549] PLUNDEB OF THE CHUBOH 260

Bnt the rapacious council turned next upon the bishoprics. Three of the six recently founded by Henry VIII. were abolished and their incomes appropriated. Other bishops were ^^c^^ compelled to surrender large portions of their lands or their revenues in order to escape confiscation. Church buildings were seized and converted to worldly uses; some- times the buildings were razed and the site devoted to a palace for a friend of the government. But the work of plunder was not to stop here. Under such encouragement from those in author- ity, shrines and altar plate were stolen by base hands to find their way to the mint to be issued in the current coin. Chalices, jewels, bells, and ornaments, were appropriated by greedy vestry- men, and offered for public sale; pictures and furniture were carried off; church buildings were turned into stables, and horses and mules and kine munched their straw in solemn Pilence under the stately arches of nave or choir loft.

Cranmer, in the meanwhile, was exercising his peculiar gifts in bringing out an English Prayer-book in the hope of introducing The Prayer- ^ome order in the midst of the chaos by providing a ^ct^uni^ uniform service. In this he was assisted by a committee formity, is49, of churchmen of whom Nicholas Ridley, the bishop of Rochester, is perhaps the best known. The work received the approval of convocation, and by the Act of Uniformity was sanctioned by parliament and substituted for the forms already in vogue. It was an adaptation of the old Missal, or Mass-book, and the Breviary, the book which contained the authorized prayers of the old church for the seven canonical hours. The treatment of the Mass naturally puzzled the redactors. They finally decided upon a compromise, which as usual in such cases satisfied no one. They went too far to carry along those who hated the new changes, as Bishop Bonner, and not far enough to please those who denied the Real Presence and the Eucharistic sacrifice. It was necessary to hold another "royal visitation'* in order to enforce the new service-book. Bonner was deposed, and thrown into prison where he lingered until the death of Edward.

Somerset had now been in control of the government for two years and the effect of his high-handed policy was beginning

370 THE PR0GBES8 OF THE BEFOBM [siyirAB»yL

to be manifest upon all sides. The social disorders to which the later acts of Henry's reign had contributed, had increased; nor

had the protector done aught to relieve the distress, ^^^^jjj^ save to modify somewhat the laws against vagrancy.

The continued debasing of the coinage had also aug- mented the commercial distress, while the confiscation and break- ing up of the foundations connected with the religious gilds had swelled the number of those who were thrown upon public charity for support. The increasing stringency, moreover, had reacted upon itself ; those who employed servants attempted to retrench by cutting down the number; landlords, also, in their efforts to secure less costly methods of production, continued to enclose large areas for sheepwalks, thus swelling the ever-increasing multitude who were left to choose between beggary, robbery, and starvation. Restlessness increased rapidly ; men ceased to respect a government which existed only to impoverish them ; they began to discredit the reform as the cause of all their misery; they decried the leaders, too many of whom had fattened upon the plunder of the church, as thieves and highwaymen.

Serious trouble broke out in the summer of 1549. The effort to introduce the Prayer-book brought on risings in Cornwall and

Devon. Exeter was besieged by a band of 10,000 p^uiorrig- rebels who demanded the restoration of the Six

ftl/ffSf 1549.

Articles and the Mass, the elevation of the Host, the suppression of the English Bible, and the recall of Cardinal Pole. They were put down by Russell and Grey but only after two hard-fought battles, St. Mary's Clyst and Sampford Courtenay, in which four thousand of the western peasants were slain. Of the leaders, among whom was an Arundel, short shrift was made. Insurrection had also broken out in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and other places. The most serious rising occurred, however, in Norfolk which unlike the remote western counties had been a stronghold of the Reformation. Here the grievance of the people was not the Prayer-book, but their poverty and suffering. A great camp was formed at Mousehold Hill, near Norwich, whither, under the guidance of a tanner named Eet, the people proceeded in a very orderly way to summon the neighboring landlords

1549] FAILUBE OF THE PROTECTOB 271

before them to answer for their conduct in the enclosure of the neighboring commons and the eviction of yeoman tenants. The protector was greatly puzzled as to what course to follow, for these were his friends; he himself was attempting to check the greed of the landlords and had appointed a commission to inquire into the enclosures. He therefore sought to temporize and persuade the people to entrust their cause to him; but the rebels refused to break up the camp until their grievances had first been righted. Fighting began, and then the trouble was on. John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, who was marching north with an army designed for Scotland, was ordered to proceed against the rebels. This he did at once, routing them with great slaughter, August 27.

These events completely destroyed what was left of Somerset's waning influence. It was evident to the most hopeful that he FaHwe of the ^^^ failed, not, however, from any lack of good will, SSminSgr* ^^^ simply because he persisted in doing too many tration. things at once. The whole country was in confusion; the people were suffering, and the government was sinking into hopeless debt. Corruption, moreover, pervaded the public service from top to bottom. The royal mints not only continued their dangerous output of debased coins, but the royal officers were coining on their own account. Sharington, the master of the mint at Bristol, confessed that in a few months he had thus put out some £100,000. The commander of the skeleton regiments on the northern border drew pay and rations for the full quota of troops, and kept np the fraud by hiring neighboring country- men to fill his depleted ranks on muster days. It was evident to all, finally even to Somerset himself, that his administration had been a pitiful failure, and the council determined to fall back upon the terms of Henry's will. Somerset, accordingly, was retired though not without a few weeks of seclusion in the Tower.

John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, who had been the chief instrument in the overthrow of Somerset, now became the infiuential man of the council, but without the title or rank of protector. He was such a man as times of revolution are likely to bring to the fore. He had by diligence and merit worked oat

272 THE PR0GBE88 OF THE BEFORM [edwabdTL

from under the shadow of his father's reverses, and had become distinguished '^as a soldier, a diplomatist, and as an admiral." He was shrewd, canning, and knew how to keep his thoughts to himself. He was free from enthusiasm both in his faults and his virtues. He affected to support the religious reform but, as the sequel proved, his support was a matter of politics rather than principle.

When Dudley came into power the tide was already setting strong towards the conservative policy of Henry VIII. The com- mons of Devon and Cornwall bad openly demanded the Vu^ormi restoration of the Catholic faith and a reenactment of the Six Articles. But for Dudley to put himself at the head of this movement meant the restoration of Norfolk and Gkirdiner, and he very well knew that to restore Norfolk meant the restoration of the old nobility to power and the speedy end of his own influence. His only hope, therefore, was to make thorough work where Somerset had begun. Bishops like Gardiner were displaced by men like Ridley, Hooper, and Coverdale. The fires of Smithfield were not allowed to smoulder; and the world witnessed the unseemly spectacle of Protestants burning Prot- estants.

In carrying out his schemes Dudley needed all the available strength of the reform party, and in April 1550 Somerset was Duouu (mr- ^S^^ admitted to the council. His influence had \i^^Mm ^*pi<^Jy revived after his fall. Before the unquestioned ^ Somerset, sincerity of the man, the superiority of his personal character, his nearness to the king and interest in his welfare, men soon forgot his mistakes and began to look to him again as the real leader of the reform. But as the autumn of 1551 came in, the reaction in his favor so alarmed Dudley that he began to plot again for his overthrow and suddenly arrested him on the charge of treason. And when he found that he could not convict him upon this charge, he dropped it for a charge of conspiracy against Dudley himself, and in January 1552 the quondam protector was sent to the block. It was a fatal mistake for Dudley. From that day eyes were opened to the real character of this zealous reformer and men began to detest him.

1503] 8E00ND PBAYEB-BOOK OF EDWARD VI. 278

As Dudley realized that his popularity with his party was decliningy he increased his pretended epthnsiasm for the purifica- tion of the church. The success of Charles in Ger- 5^|2J*« many had driven a multitude of Protestant exiles across the sea, who brought the ultra views of the Zwinglian school with them and soon made their influence felt at Oxford and Cambridge. Even Cranmer was drifting fast in their wake, and was prepared at last to deny the Real Presence in the Mass. In 1552 the Prayer-book of 1549, known as the First Prayer* hooh of Edward VL was superseded by the Second Prayer-book of Edward VL The new Prayer-book was followed by the Forty 'two Art teles ^ which presented a new statement of doctrine, based on the Lutheran confession. The same parliament also took time from their doctrinal discussions to pass a poor-law which compelled each parish to make a systematic collection for its poor, an honest but futile effort to meet distresses which struck their roots far back into the fourteenth century.

The Second Prayer-book of Edward VI. and the Forty-two

Articles indicate the high-water mark of the first period of the

reform. The leaders had already outstripped the

The hioh- .. _, .. . -1,11,,

watermark nation. The corruption of some and the wholesale plundering of most, had discredited their principles, and the forces of reaction were gathering, all the more terrible and disastrous in recoil, because for the time repressed by authority and compelled to gather strength in secret.

CHAPTER V

THE CATHOLIC REACTION"

EDWARD n., 1553 MARY, 15S3-156H

As Edward neared his sixteenth year, it became evident to his ministers that he would never endure the cares of royalty; and Dudley, now duke of Northumberland, began to turn his thought to the succession with the view of perpetuating his own author- ity. He persuaded Edward, ostensibly in the interest of the

j874 the OATHOLIO BEAOTIOK [edwawVL

Reformation, to make a will as his father had done before him. By this will both Mary and Elizabeth were to be set aside as illegitimate and the succession was to pass to Lady l^ySSLi. •'^^^^ Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII. 's favor- ite sister, Mary, the queen of Louis XII. of France, who had married for her second husband, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. Edward entered into the plan warmly. The will was signed, but there was not time to secure the sanction of parliament. For the same holy purpose, to save the Reformation, Edward was also persuaded to sanction the marriage of Lady Jane to Guilford Dudley, the son of Duke John.

On July 6, 1553, the boy king died. Dudley attempted to keep the secret until he could seize Mary, but Mary's friends ..Q^ were alert, and withm twenty-four hours after the cuSmeS^^ king's death she was in full flight to join the Howards July 10 in Iforfolk, proclaiming her reign as she passed along

and calling upon the loyal to join her. In the meanwhile, North- umberland summoned the council, announced the king's death, and proclaimed "Queen Jane." The unfortunate girl who was to be sacrificed to the minister's ambition, was hardly in her seven- teenth year. Her beauty, her noble and pure spirit, her innocence and her tragic fate, have made her a universal favorite. One almost marvels that such a flower could bloom in the atmosphere that surrounded John Dudley. She cared nothing for the royal honors and submitted to his plans because she was taught it was her duty. Yet she was by no means a puppet, and stoutly refused to have Dudley's son, her husband, crowned with her.

From the first, Jane had little prospect of success; even in London, whore if anywhere Dudley might expect support, his proclamation was received by the assembled crowds in silence. The lack of enthusiasm was ominous; the tide of reaction was coming in; the people were weary of the rule of the reformers, who after twenty years of reformation, apparently saw as much to reform as ever. The old duke, Thomas Howard, was still in the Tower; but his sons and grandsons were up, and from far and near the country fiocked to their banner. The fleet also declared for Mary, and at last even the Protestant lords went over to her.

1558] QUEEK MARY 275

There was nothing left for Dudley bat submisBion; and on July 19 . he abandoned his queen of a week, and himself proclaimed Mary at Cambridge. The next day he was arrested and sent to the Tower. There was no hope for him, and yet with the idea of winning some favor with his executioners he made an abject con- fession: that bis Protestantism had been only a sham, that he was a good Catholic at heart and that he had been all along play- ing a part. He failed to save himself, but did great harm to the Protestant cause; for the simple folk, who had called him their "Joshua," and were accustomed to trust him implicitly, naturally began to suspect all professions and believe in no man's sincerity. On August 3, Mary entered London. The Lady Jane and her husband were arrested, and in November were tried and convicted of treason. But Mary fully intended to be lenient, and had no thought then of shedding their blood.

The choice of Mary was the expression of the desire of the nation to retrace its steps. But how far would the reaction go?

This would be determined by the character of Mary

and the policy of her ministors. How long should the reaction endure? This would be letermined by the extent to which the people would follow their sovereign. The outlook for the reformera, therefore, was not encouraging. The new queen was a Tudor, with all the Tudor tenacity of purpose and blind self-will, with a dangerous possibility of ruthless cruelty if roused or resisted. With all the intensity of her Tudor nature, moreover, Mary was devoted to her mother's faith and under strong influence was certain to take up the full restoration of that faith to her people as the one object of her life.

At first, however, her course was moderate enough. The late king was buried with the public rites prescribed by the existing law; Cranmor, who was still at large, was allowed to

conduct the ceremonies. The members of Edward's eratomof council who had not supported Dudley, were left in

undisturbed possession of their places. The Protestant bishops who had been most pronounced in their later teaching were removed and the old Catholic bishops were restored again to their dioceses. The persecution of Catholics was also stopped;

276 THE OATHOLIO BEAOTION [babs

religions disputations were forbidden, but Protestants were to be protected from the interference of reactionary mobs.

To the great majority of the people this was well pleasing. They hailed Mary's accession as the first step toward a return to ModeraUfm *^® policy of her father, but they did not wish to go Sf^par.* further. They were not Protestants; but they did liament ^ot wish to SCO Mary declared legitimate to the dis- paragement of Elizabeth's claims as fixed by Henry's wiU. They had, moreoYcr, dipped too generally into the plunder of the church to wish to see the church restored as it had been in Wolsey's time; they had no desire to surrender the confiscated lands, which had now been in their hands for nearly a generation. When, there- fore, Mary's first parliament, the most nearly representative of any which had been chosen in England for many years, came together, the most radical of Edward's religious laws, the Prayer-book, and the Act of Uniformity, were swept away; the Mass was restored, and the clergy were required to return to celibacy; but beyond this, parliament refused to go. It was satisfied with restoring the statutes of Uenry's reign; and even here it made exceptions. The Six Articles and the older laws against the Lollards found no favor.

Gardiner, the chancellor, was a thorough-going Englishman and had no desire to see either the papal authority restored in TheparUa- England, or the crown bound by a foreign alliance to nwrrSae''** the support of Spain or France. But Mary was already qtuBtum, 1553. drifting out from under his influence and had fallen under the power of other counsellors. By them she had been induced to fix her mind upon two projects which she had long cherished in secret; first to secure a marriage alliance with her cousin Philip of Spain, and second to restore England completely to the papal allegiance. In the second she had been greatly encouraged by Benard, the imperial minister, yet he had no desire by pushing the matter, to imperil the prospect of the marriage. In this ho reflected both the ambition and the caution of his master. Charles, in fact, regarded the marriage alliance as a neces- sary offset to the alliance of Mary Queen of Scots with Francis of France. It was to be his next move in the great continental

t588] THE SPANISH MABBIAGB 277

game; the interests of England were of little moment compared with the success of his vast schemes against his riyal. Bnt Mary with characteristic Tudor impatience was unwilling to wait for the unwinding of the emperor's plot, and had no sooner made up her mind than she entered at once into secret negotiations with the pope, and Cardinal Pole set out for England. The emperor heard of the measure in alarm and persuaded the pope to call Pole back.

In the meanwhile the parliament in its own way was working at the problems presented by the new reign. When it had settled the religious question, it turned to the question of the royal mar- riage. The members were fully determined that a foreign prince should not sit upon the English throne eyen as the consort of their queen, and on the 16th of November the Speaker of the Commons, in the name of parliament, formally petitioned the queen to marry one of her own subjects. Mary was furious, and as the parliament showed no signs of withdrawing its impertinent advice, on December 6 she sent the members to their homes, — ^a bad omen for the future.

In the council the Spanish marriage was hardly more popular. Gardiner, who was in touch with the parliament, proposed Edward Courtenay, who as great-grandson of Edward and fj«5»ori- IV. was of the blood-royal and though a subject, worthy by birth to be the queen's consort. But Mary's mind was made up, — always a serious matter for a Tudor. She, moreoyer, had formed a most romantic attachment for her Spanish kinsman, whom she had never seen, but whom she imagined to be a paragon of all princely virtues. Oardiner knew his mistress too well to continue his opposition, and vrisely determined to prevent as far as possible the evils which might follow the Spanish marriage, by prescribing a series of stipulations, in which Charles pledged himself that Philip should never be more than titular king of England, that England should neyer be united with Spain under one crown, that all foreigners should be excluded from command in the English army or navy, and that England should not be asked to assist Spain in her wars with France. The council then yielded a reluctant consent. The marriage contracts were signed, and the time for the wedding fixed.

378 THE OATHOLIO BEAOTIOK [kast

From the nation at large Mary got little comfort. In spite of the concessions of Charles, Englishmen generally believed that omerdioppo'^^S^^^^ was now to bccome a mere dependency of spanMi Spain, like Naples and the Low Countries, ruled by ^narriagt, Spanish adventurers and overawed by Spanish mus- keteers. If Protestants and Catholics could agree to make common cause, something might be done to preserve the independ- ence of England, bat the bitter memories connected with the names of Seymour and Dudley were too fresh to permit the Cath- olics to join with their recent foes. Nevertheless some of Dudley's old friends, rallying around the duke of Suffolk and Sir Thomas Wyatt, attempted to raise the people of Kent and the Midlands with the avowed purpose of preventing the Spanish marriage. The quest from first to last was a fool's errand; a little band of Kentish men followed Wyatt into London but were overwhelmed and disarmed; he himself with Suffolk and others was sent to the block. It was inevitable that Suffolk's daughter, the Lady Jane, and her harmless husband should be drawn down with her father and his friends, although they had taken no part in the plot. On February 12, the sentence of the year before was carried out.

The ill-timed insurrection and the vigorous treatment of the rebels prevented further opposition and in April a new parliament Marriage of formally Sanctioned the marriage contract. The prince Ph^p^jiiy arrived in July and on the 25th the marriage wag 25,155* celebrated. The pair were thoroughly incompatible.

Mary was plain, without any attractive qualities of mind or body, and withal was twelve years the senior of her husband. Her health was already breaking ; she had grown wan and haggard; her spirits were easily affected; all of which did not tend to commend her to a husband who had tolerated the marriage at all, simply as a political necessity.

While Philip remained in England he had counselled his ardent queen to move cautiously in carrying out the second project which was as dear to her as the Spanish marriage. With his return to Spain, however, the only influence that could have stayed her hand was withdrawn. The parliament, which had

1554, 1555] THE REACTION AT FLOOD 279

accepted the Spanish marriage, had flatly refused to restore the Six Articles, and a proposition to reenact the laws against LoU

lardy had been lost somewhere between the two attegianee r©- houscs. But in October, when Mary's third parliament

came together, it was soon evident that while a large majority had no objection to restoring the pope, they were in no mind to renounce the possession of church lands which had fallen to the nation by reason of its share in Henry's acts of spoliation. In yain Mary and her chancellor pleaded; in yain Mary sought to set an example by releasing the church lands which were held by the crown. There the matter hung until the pope came to the rescue by formally agreeing to ratify the possession of the church lands by the present holders, on condition that parliament pass the laws necessary to restore the papal supremacy. On the 29th of Noyember, parliament yoted on the question, whether the country should return to the obedience of the Apostolic see. In the Upper House the assent was given without opposition. In the Lower House, out of 360 members present, only two responded with a negative vote. The next day, St. Andrew's Day, the last of November, 1554, the queen, the council, and the members of both houses of parliament, repaired to Whitehall and kneeling before Cardinal Pole, the papal legate, who with "ecstatic impatience" had been waiting for this moment ever since the accession of Mary, confessed the sin of the nation and received absolution. England was now once more restored to the church of the continent. On January 4, parliament completed its work by presenting to the crown the so-called "Great Bill," which swept away all the ecclesiastical legislation of Henry subsequent to the year 1529.

The limits of legislative reaction were now reached and parliament refused to go farther. The two acts upon which

Elizabeth's right to the succession rested had been SjtcxS!^*^ slated by Gardiner for condemnation, but parliament

ref Qsed to touch them save as they affected the see of Rome. It restored the authority of the bishops* courts but expresslj ienied them the right "to inquiet or molest any person or persons or body politic," on account of the possession of any of

280 THE OATHOLIO BEAOTION [lUn

the sequestered lands or other property of the chnrch. The Act of Mortmain was suspended for twenty years, but "the specter of praemunire" was left "unexercised" to haunt the clergy with all the shadowy terrors which had been imparted to it by the decision of Henry VIII. 's courts. In yain the clergy pleaded that the hated law might be repealed or at least limited in its application; parliament would go no farther. The tide of reaction was at flood.

The nation was satisfied; enough had been done, and here matters might have rested, had not Mary made up her mind to force Englishmen to become Catholics in heart as they (fceperae- had become Catholics again by the laws of the land. As men understood the functions of goyernment, it was entirely within her right to compel her subjects to subscribe to a uniform faith. She was also justified by the customary law of Europe in using violence against those who defied the laws and subjecting them to death by the torture of fire. It was neverthe- less a grave and fatal error, and did more to defeat Mary's purpose and bring on a new Protestant reaction than all the fiery polemics of men like John Knox and others; she could not crush the rising spirit of humanity in the hearts of her people.

On June 20, 1555, the act which restored the heresy acts of Henry IV. and Henry V. went into effect. Among the first victims were John Rogers, the Bible translator, and Hooper, the bishop of Gloucester. Gardiner and others, possibly Mary herself, did not expect any serious resistance; a few examples only would be necessary to show the heretics that the government was in earnest. They gave the leaders little credit for sincerity and thought that, like Dudley, the smell of death would frighten them into speedy acquiescence. But these were different men whose faith was now to be put to the test; nor could their firmness be shaken by the sight of the flames. Spectators who came to scoff and jeer, went away thoughtful and reverent. Coverdale was saved by the interposition of the king of Denmark ; but Ridley and Latimer sealed their faith at Oxford, October 16, 1555. Latimer was now in his seventy-seventh year, hale and hearty and merry to the last. ''Play the man, Master Ridley," he

use] BBATH OF CRAimB 281

flhonted to hiB fellow, as the executioners were fastening them to the stake, **We shall this day light such a candle in England, as I tmst by Qod's grace shall never be pnt ont."

Of all Mary's victims none perlu^ps had merited her vengeance more than Cranmer. She wonld not be a woman to forget the

part which he had taken in &steninff the stain upon Cranmer, her birth. Cranmer had been brought up for trial in

September 1555 at the time when Ridley and Latimer were tried. But he, unlike them, was a regularly consecrated bishop of the Catholic church and his fellow bishops feared to proceed without special license from Borne. When at last in the following February the requisite authority was received, Cranmer's courage, which had never been of the stoutest, failed him. He shrank from the torture of the heretic's death, and in hope of gaining his life recanted. His enemies, hovrever, had no thought of allowing their victim to escape and he was condemned notwith- standing. As the end drew near, he recovered his spirit and boldly facing death withdrew his unhappy denial of the Protestant faith, thrusting his right hand into the flame first, *'that unworthy right hand,^' as he sadly exclaimed, with which he had signed the recantation.

The whole number of executions amounted to 277. The victims were taken almost altogether from the ranks of the com-

mon people. Xo one of note among the laity suffered ; exuniofthe and with the exception of a few ecclesiastics, such as

Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer, none who could be called prominent. The executions, moreover, were confined almost entirely to the three dioceses of London, Norwich, and Canterbury. In the rest of England, all told, they did not number more than fifty. They were enough, however, to stir a deep spirit of hate and resentment among the people and leave an indelible impression upon the English mind which three hundred years have not been able to efface.

Mary felt deeply the decline of her popularity. She knew that her people hated her and waited for her death. To add to her sorrow and sense of loneliness, Philip, under the plea of new duties, had practically deserted her. She longed for the love of

282 THE CATHOLIC BEAOTIOK [kakx

the husband who neyer came, and who ceased at last even to write to her. She had prayed for a child ; but her prayers had been mocked. Even God apparently had abandoned Maru^ her. She was alone and desolate. She dared no longer trust herself in public, lest she should give way in un- seemly outbursts of hysteric passion. She fell into a profound melancholy and great distaste of life.

Her councillors knew that the nation, goaded by the brutal scenes which they were called upon to witness, only waited a leader to break into open revolt. A futile attempt was made in 1557 by Thomas Stafford, the grandson of the late duke of Buck- ingham. The affair of itself was of little importance; but the expedition had been fitted out in France and gave Mary, therefore, a pretext for declaring war against France. Philip, who visited England for a few weeks in March, had exerted all his influence for this purpose, and Mary was well pleased to have one opportunity at last of gratifying her husband.

England, perhaps in all her history, was never less prepared for war. Mary had been allowed to exhaust the royal treasury in _ her frantic efforts to refound the abbeys and restore

THc loss of

Calais, Janr the desecrated church buildings. Many complaints had come from Calais of the beggared condition of its garrison and the ruined state of its fortifications ; she had been warned by Admiral Howard of the pitiful condition of the navy. But with the same blindness with which she had urged on the executions of linen drapers and village priests, she had continued to pour out the national treasure in her work of restoring the church. She was now compelled, therefore, to levy forced loans, to lay new duties upon imports and exports, for which the laws gave her no sanction, and to continue the debasement of the coinage. After so much else, these acts completely destroyed what little credit Mary still retained with the proprietary classes, who had not been directly affected by the persecutions. The war itself, moreover, was exceedingly unpopular; the possibility of it was the thing which had been feared from the first, and was the secret of most of the popular suspicion of Philip. When, therefore, early in the new year, the news was brought home that

1668] DEATH OF MABT 888

Galaifl and Gaianes, the last foothold of the English in France, which had been English territory for 211 years, had been taken by the duke of Guise without an effort on the part of the incom- petent ministers of Mary to save them, nothing was left to com- plete the general disgust and detestation of the people.

No one felt the crushing disappointment of the fall of Calais more than Mary herself. It was the last sign of the Diyine dis- j^^fjg^f^ favor and she roused herself with frantic energy to venSirn^ Continue her work. The fiery executions went on with ^^^- renewed vigor; the rebuilding and reestablishing of

monasteries continued. But the end was not far off* Mary died on tho 17th of November, 1558.

Mary was a good woman misled by the fatal superstition which confounded religion with opinion, llad she lived in better times

she might have proved a worthy queen. Religious party ^»5J2^ hatred has made of her a monster, but she se^ms to

have been well educated, amiable in manner, and not altogether unpleasing, until she became haggard by disease and a breaking heart. No monarch was ever more conscientious in the fulfillment of a monarch's high responsibilities; none more sincere in the unflinching pursuit of what she deemed to be right. It was impossible for the daughter of Catharine of Aragon to be other than a bitter enemy of the Reformation. But she was not cruel by nature; few political executions would have attended her accession to the throne, had not the foolish rebellion of Suffolk and Wyatt driven her to measures of severity. Her religious persecutions also were inspired not by a thirst for blood, but by her passionate desire to save the souls of the millions of her countrymen, who, as she sincerely believed, were in danger of eternal damnation because of the errancy of a few religious teachers. In this use of political power, moreover, she was -upheld by the convictions of the most enlightened men of her time.

284 THE BEFOBM ESTABLI8HBD [bluabkb

CHAPTER XI

ELIZABETH; THE BEFOBM ESTABLISHED

ELIZABETH, 15S»-t5»i

When Elizabeth began her reign, the realm was in a critical condition. The country was in the midst of a disastrous war with France and Scotland. The kingdom was wM^ij^iMd practically defenseless ; it was without an army, with- out a navy, and its fortifications were crumbling. The treasury was empty; the currency was in confusion; trade was languishing, and taxes were heavy. During the last three years of Mary's reign, moreoyer, the land had been ravaged by famine and pestilence, and the people were still suffering. They were just in the mood, therefore, to cast themselves with terrible energy into a reaction which threatened to be even more yiolent, more terrible, more destructive of life and property than the Marian persecution, if it did not end in civil war. The question of the succession, also, was by no means settled ; France was sure to press the claims of Mary of Scotland, and the pope, strongly French in his sympathies, was certain to issue a bull of excom- munication whenever the French court gave the word. Such was the forbidding outlook when Elizabeth took up the work of her unhappy sister.

Almost the first important act of the new queen was to make William Cecil Secretary of State. Cecil had been Somerset's private secretary and had held high office under c^^of^ Dudley. During Mary's reign he had remained in obscurity, finding shelter with many others who had been of Edward's court, by conforming to the dominant religion. Another important appointment of Elizabeth was that of Matthew Parker, the old chaplain of her mother, to the position left vacant by the death of Pole, who had succeeded Cranmer as archbishop of Canterbury. Both men were moderate Protestants and were one with Elizabeth in her desire to restore the tranquillity of the realm.

The religious question demanded immediate settlement. Tho nation was still Catholic, both in form and in sentiment, although the people were weary of the church courts and their heresy trials,

1559] ELIZABETH AND THE REUQIOUS QUESnOlT S86

and were generally disgnsted with the tyranny of priests. The new pope, Paul IV., moreover, was apparently inclined to de- gUig(a>eth ii^ft^d the surrender of the church lands, and in rSuatoua ^^*^ cvcnt the papacy also would inevitably come in 9'*«^*<^ for a share in tlie revulsion of feeling roused by the excesses of Mary and her pro-Spanish policy. Tet Elizabeth hesitated to break with the papacy. She was more Catholic than Protestant in her sympathies and had no desire to commit England again to the Reformation. But Anne Boleyn's daughter could never expect the recognition of Bome. If Elizabeth would reign she must take up again the work of her father. Tet she would not be hurried. She insisted on having Mass in Latin, but she permitted the Epistles and Gospels, the Ten Command- ments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, to be used in English. She stopped the persecutions for heresy, but forbac'.e controversy. She refused to disturb Mary's bishops and assured Philip that she believed in transubstantiation.

When parliament came together early in 1559 the cautious moderation of Elizabeth was fully justified. The most of Mary's

ecclesiastical legislation was repealed. A new Act of leauiaunnqf Supremacy declared the queen to be "over all persons firntpar- and causcs, as well ecclesiastical as civil, within these

dominions supreme"; but the style, "Supreme Head of the Church," was dropped. A new Act of Uniformity also appeared ; but the Prayer-book was so ordered as to hold to a middle course, leaving in language studiously ambiguous, room for the disciples of all faiths, so that Catholic or Anglican, Lutheran or Calvinist, might find his creed in the common form. "Such ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof" were to be retained "as was in the Church of England by authority of parliament in the second year of King Edward VI." These measures were not expected to satisfy the radicals of any party; but they might quiet the apprehensions of the moderate men of all parties and furnish the basis upon which Englishmen might live at peace with each other. No declaration of faith was to be exacted from laymen. If a man absented himself from church, a fine of 12 pence for the household was prescribed. OfiSceholdersi

286 THE REFOBM ESTABLISHED [eusab

0

whether lay or ecclesiastical, were required to take the oath of supremacy; to fail was to lose their position and be debarred for- ever after from entering the public service.

The church as organized by Mary was not so easy to manage. Convocation formally approved of transubstantiation and the

papal supremacy. The bishops in the House of Lords and the all spoke and voted against the Act of Supremacy, and

when Elizabeth demanded that they should take the oath, only one of the fourteen bishops yielded. Of the lower clergy, however, out of 9,000 only 189 refused the oath and threw up their posts. Of the others many, while avoiding the oath under various pretexts, yet indicated their submission to the new order. Elizabeth, who had no thought of driving them to extremes, was apparently satisfied.

The Act of Supremacy had also empowered the queen to delegate authority to commissioners who should inquire into, and

punish, all violations of the ecclesiastical laws of the HiohCommis-'kmgdom. At first Elizabeth contented herself with

issuing only occasional commissions, but there was so much work to be done and the docket soon fell so far in arrears that the court finally became permanent. Thus was established the famous Court of High Commission.

Elizabeth found on her accession that Philip II. of Spain seriously desired to be her friend; for since Mary Queen of Scots

was married to the Dauphin, Philip was forced to sup- ^J^piwto P^^ Elizabeth against Mary. This necessity was

England's salvation; for England in 1558 could have coped with neither kingdom successfully. In his anxiety to retain Elizabeth as his ally, Philip proposed marriage. Elizabeth, however, had no inclination to marry the cold and politic Spaniard of whom she had seen quite enough in her sister's court. Yet it was far better to keep Philip dangling as a suitor, than to part with him definitely, and this perliaps pleased Philip quite as well, for until his suit should be dismissed, Elizabeth at least would not support his enemies. He remained, therefore, ostensibly her friend, and in the final treaty with France, faithfully supported the English claims.

ifiSml] JOHN KKOX 387

During the fifteen years in which Mary Stuart had been dwelling in France, conditions in Scotland had been rapidly

changing. The Reformation had been given an matumin enthusiastic support by both people and nobility; but

the bishops, encouraged by the turn of affairs in England during Mary's reign, were fully determined to arrest the spread of reforming heresies in Scotland, and had resorted to persecution. When, however, Elizabeth ascended the English throne, the Protestants took fresh heart. A group of nobles signed a covenant, and styling themselves ''the Lords of the Congregation," demanded the English Prayer-book and prepared to defend their faith.

In 1559 the Scottish Protestants received an important accession to their ranks in the person of John Knox. Knox had

been taken at St. Andrews Castle by the French in the "*" ""^ early days of Seymour 's protectorate and sent to the gal- leys; later he had been chaplain to Edward YI., but on the incoming of the Catholic reaction had escaped to the continent. At Geneva he came under the direct influence of John Calvin and adopted his views. From this safe retreat, also, he issued his fiery attack upon Mary, '*The Monstrous Regiment of Women." He was imperious, uncompromising, and of dauntless courage. When he returned to Scotland in 1559 he devoted all his terrible logical powers to the attack upon the prevailing customs of the church. His eloquence was irresistible; his stinging satire, his hard scorn, lashed the people to frenzy. At Perth the vast con- gregation rose from one of his sermons to loot the cathedral, smashing the windows, ripping up the pictures, and demolishing the images. From Perth the frenzy of destruction spread over Scotland. The Queen Eegent, Mary of Guise, attempted to interfere; but the Lords of the Congregation sheltered and encouraged the iconoclasts. Open war broke out. The Regent called upon the French court for help. The Lords turned to Elizabeth. But Elizabeth had little sympathy with the excesses of the Congregation; she hated Presbyterianism, detested Knox, and was suspicious of rebels of all kinds. Yet she could not permit the French to regain control of Scotland. She agreed^

288 THE BBFOBM ESTABLISHED [EusAnn

therefore, against her inclination, to assist the Lords to drive out the French, but they mnst remain loyal to their qaeen. The Scottish reformers, however, were not the kind of men to be satisfied with half measures, and taking advantage of the recent death of the Queen Begent proceeded to attack the legal founda- tions of the church, and by act of parliament swept away the old church establishment and enjoined the Calvinistic form in its place. The Lords thus far had supported the reform, partly for political reasons and partly because they desired to plunder the church as the English Lords had done in the reigns of Henry and Edward. When, however, the time came to enjoy the spoils, they found an insurmountable obstacle in John Knox, who had no desire to see the church stripped to satisfy the greed of the nobles, and threw all his fiery energy into the new straggle between the reformed clergy and the Lords of the Congregation.

Things were at this pass when the death of the young Francis II. left Mary free to return to her own people. She reached Scotland in August 1561. She was a gay, light-hearted KnSL^^ girl of nineteen, highly cultured, full of the spirit of the French Renaissance, and with an irresistible way of drawing the hearts of those who came in contact with her, very marked in contrast with the cold and haughty Elizabeth. Her intellectual powers, also, were as marked; she could plot with Italian cunning and possessed withal the courage and wiU to carry out her schemes; but unfortunately she was not mistress of her passions. She professed herself willing to tolerate Protestant- ism and asked only that Protestants tolerate her in turn. To this the Lords assented, but Enox, the watch-dog of the new Scottish church, cried out in horror against it. Between Knox and such as Mary there could be neither sympathy nor compromise.

An era of turmoil and strife followed. Elizabeth's sympathies were with her sister monarch; her monarchical instincts, alwajs _ strong with her, as with her father, forbade her to

Elizabeth's

policy toiiwrd encourage rebellion. But Mary claimed to be by right

of birth the legitimate heir to the English throne after

Mary Tudor, and this claim she would not surrender, unless

Elizabeth would recognize her as her successor. This, however,

1569, 1560] PEACE POLICY OF ELIZABETH 289

Elizabeth would not do; her Protestant sabjects feared the Scottish queen and had no wish to see another Catholic Mary on the English throne. Elizabeth contented herself, therefore, with encouraging the Scottish Lords in order to keep Mary busy at home and prevent the formation of a party in her favor in England; for the English Catholics were just as fearful of a Protestant succession and looked to Mary for the solution of their troubles.

The English parliament thought to settle the troublesome question by finding a husband for Elizabeth and more than once

petitioned her on the subject; she answered graciously marriaqtqf but evasively, and continued to keep her suitors

waiting. In 1561 it was supposed that she was about to marry Lord Robert Dudley, her first f avorite, the handsome but worthless son of the late duke of Noithumborland.

For the first ten years of her reign, Elizabeth steadily per- sisted in her purpose to remain at peace. "No war, my lords,'*

was her oft-repeated rejoinder at the council board. oflUSa^^ Her government had been peaceful and economical.

The country was recovering rapidly from the disorder which had confronted her on hor accession. She restored the coinage in 1560 and recovered the credit of the government.

She repaired and garrisoned her fortresses and once ntored^atth morc brought the navy up to a respectable footing.

Moreover, her studied policy of conciliation and her persistent refusal to side with extremists had created a new national party who put their interests as Englishmen over against those of church or party, and who were increasing every year in strength and number. Her policy of shielding herself from foreign attack behind the rivalry of France and Spain had also succeeded. As the Reformation progressed and both states were weakened by revolts of their Protestant subjects, the prospect of interference became even more remote. It was Elizabeth's policy, moreover, without committing herself, to encourage Protestants on the continent as in Scotland. She particularly feared the Guises, who led the Catholic nobility against the Huguenots, and who as uncles of the Scottish queen wore ready to support her in

290 THE REFORM ESTABLISHED [

pressing her claims to the English throne. ' In 1562, the French queen mother, the famous Catharine de Medici, attempted to give the Huguenots religious toleration, bat was bitterly opposed by the Guises. The result was a civil war, in which Elizabeth gave some assistance to the Huguenots and received Havre in pledge. The war, however, was not creditable to English arms and in 1564 Elizabeth retired from the struggle. And, although she continued cautiously to encourage the Huguenots when opportunity offered, it became more definitely than ever her policy to keep out of war with France as well as Spain.

The same policy which led Elizabeth to interfere in the struggle of the Huguenots led her also to adopt stricter measures in restraining her Catholic subjects at home. The Elizabeth Act of 1562 which compelled all teachers, all uni- Catholics of vcrsity students, all lawyers and all law officers, and all members of the House of Commons, to take the oath of supremacy, not only rid the government of annoying obstructionists, but made the Commons more strongly Protestant than ever. The next year parliament advanced another step in adding to the Prayer-book the Tliirty-Nine Articles^ which were based on the Forty-Two articles of Edward VI. and broadly defined the doctrines of the Anglican Church, robbing the Catholics of the shelter of the ambiguity of Elizabeth's Prayer-book.

These measures, however, were not radical enough to satisfy the ultra Protestants, and the same year an unseemly and bitter Divudonin Controversy arose within the Protestant ranks over the JJ^^tfj^'y/J'*' continued use of vestments in the church service. PurttaTw. Extreme Protestants, soon to be known as Puritans, objected to continuing the forms or ceremonies which had been inherited from the old church. They had no thought at first of separating themselves from the Anglican Church but sought to continue the reform within the national church, replacing the episcopacy by a government of synods and elders, after the Grenevan or Presbyterian model. One section, however, known as Separatists, rejected both forms of church organization and taught that the only form sanctioned in the Scriptures was the Congrega- tional, based upon the independence of each body of believers.

1685-1577] FALL OF HABY QITBEK OF SCOTS 291

Thus far Mary had managed to hold her own in Scotland; but in 1565 she married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Damley. Damley was weak and vicious, and so speedily proved himself unworthy of confidence, that Mary would not allow him to be crowned at her side. He became insanely jealous of the queen ^s Italian secretary, David Eizzio, and in March 1566 had the unfortunate man seized, dragged from the queen's presence, and stabbed to death. In less than a year Damley in his turn was assassinated by the connivance of the earl of Bothwell, a wild, luwless nature, who was allowed not only to secure an acquittal by overawing his judges, but to carry oS Mary and marry her, apparently with her consent.

This act of Bothwell was Mary's death warrant. The people rose against her and finally succeeded in driving her from the kingdom. Darnley's son James, a child one year old, Qu«CTio/ was proclaimed king of Scotland. Bothwell escaped to Orkney and after a wandering life was seized by the Danes and finally died in prison in 1577. Mary, in her despair, appealed to her sister sovereign and rival for protection and sup- port. Elizabeth pretended to investigate the matter ^^^J^ and called upon the Scottish Lords to justify their act of rebellion. In reply, they produced a casket of letters, alleged to have been written by Mary to Bothwell, which if genuine proved her complicity in Darnley's murder. Genuine or not, Mary refused to answer the charge or to recognize the commission which had been appointed virtually to try her. She refused also to abdicate in favor of her son, or make any concessions to her rebellious subjects. Elizabeth could not bring herself to give up Mary to her subjects; she dared not offend them by releasing her. Almost against her will, therefore, she was led to confine the exile at Tutbury. Mary's beauty, her wit, her fascinating ways, her misfortunes, made her a dangerous prisoner. Thomas, duke of Norfolk, the son of the earl of Surrey, one of Henry VIIL's last victims, had already become infatuated, and encouraged by the support of a number of Catholic nobles, including Thomas Percy, earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, earl of West- moreland, proposed to marry Mary, who was to be acknowledged

292 THE REFORM ESTABLISHED [

Blbabsbi

as Elizabeth's successor. Elizabeth promptly thre.w Norfolk into prison, whereupon an insurrection led by Northumberland and Westmoreland broke out in the Catholic north. But Eliza- beth was too quick for the malcontent nobles. She suppressed the revolt with cruelty and severely punished those engaged in it; every market town between the Wharf e and Tyne was graced with a group of hanging rebels. Northumberland es- caped to Scotland but was delivered to Elizabeth and executed in 1572.

The time had now come when no amount of skillful fencing could longer delay the crisis which had been threatening Elizabeth The apnroaeh ®^®^ since her accession to the throne. In February %Eiiza!^ 1670 Pope Pius V. issued the long expected bull of beth'B reign, excommunication and deposition, freeing all the sub- jects of Elizabeth from their oath of allegiance and in the minds of many justifying not only open rebellion but the secret plot of the assassin. Elizabeth was now strong in the confidence of the great part of her people; yet this loyalty had never been put to the test, and the open declaration of war by the pope caused no small anxiety on the part of the queen and her councillors, and naturally roused suspicion and distrust of all her Catholic subjects. She had, however, little cause for alarm. Scotland was now committed not only to the Reformation but to an alliance with England as well. Mary, the only rival whom she might fear, was in her hands. The Catholic government of France was struggling to retain its position against the rising power of the Huguenots. Spain was fully occupied in maintaining her hold upon the Nether- lands, where her subjects under the lead of William of Orange, had arisen against her civil and ecclesiastical tyrannies. Elizabeth, therefore, had nothing to fear from either France or Spain; yet it seemed good policy to make friends if possible, and the subject of a foreign marriage was once more broached. In 1571 the negotia- tions seemed at last about to bear fruit in a union with the duke of Alen9on, the youngest brother of Charles IX. It is not at all likely that Elizabeth was any more serious now than before, but for eleven years upon the strength of Alengon's suit she managed to enjoy the full benefit of a French alliance as a foil to the

1671,1573] THE PARLIAMENT OP 1671 298

threatening attitude of Spain. In case of attack, either conntry was to assist the other; they were also not to interfere in Scottish affairs nor allow any one else to do so.

Before 1571, Elizabeth had not summoned a parliament for nearly five years. She had avoided parliaments as the simplest way of preventing the radical views of the Puritans ^Jtcfi^L ^^^ coming to the front. But it seemed necessary after the bull of excommunication to give Europe some new evidence of the loyalty of her people, and accordingly in the spring of 1571 she called a parliament together. It was overwhelmingly Protestant, for the Supremacy Act had barred out the Catholics ; nor did it take long to pass laws against the bringing of papal bulls and other papal documents into the kingdom. When the so-called Bidolfi plot was exposed in 1572, parliament promptly petitioned for the execution of Norfolk, who was implicated, and passed a bill of attainder against Mary. Elizabeth, however, had no thought of sanctioning the latter measure; she was quite satisfied to have her enemies know that she stood between them and the vengeance of the nation.

After the execution of Norfolk, a long period of tranquillity followed. Even the massacre of St. Bartholomew, though it stirred up intense bitterness in England, was not uwSSi&y ^low®^ ^ disturb Elizabeth's friendly relations with the French court. The Spaniards continued their desperate struggle in the Netherlands, and, so far from molesting England, were not even able to retaliate for the injuries inflicted by English pirates or the encouragement which Elizabeth gave to Philip's rebellious subjects. Elizabeth, however, still had no wish for open war with Spain, and in 1575 declined the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand, which was offered her by the Nether- landers. The restlessness of the Puritans caused her no little uneasiness, not because she doubted their loyalty, but because they were for driving on the chariot of reform. The parliament of 1572 had proposed further changes in the Prayer-book. The Puritan body, also, had sent in a formal ''Admonition to Parliament," in which they demanded the abolition of Episcopacy and attacked the church courts, including the Court of High

(^f^^fy^if^ gaining ground. The queen was particularly annoyed wer^^F ^y their meetings for "prophesying," and when

294 THE REFOBX B8IABLI8HBJ> [)

Commiasion. But Elizabeth was not to be hurried and bade her parliament cease the discussion of such subjects.

It was impossible, however, to keep the people from thinking and talking, and outside of parliament the Puritans were steadily

rolaf ibem the

ehwch, Grindal, who had succeeded Parker in 1576, refused to suppress the meetings, Elizabeth straightway suspended him. The episode reveals the firm hand with which Elizabeth controlled her church. Her policy toward it was directed entirely by political motives; nor did she hesitate to plunder quite as ruth- lessly as Somerset. She left bishoprics vacant for years, while she put their revenues into her own treasury; she forced bishops to surrender large sums of money from their sees as well as a large part of the lands connected with them. The bishops remonstrated; many of Archbishop Parker's letters are wails of complaint against the robbery of the church. But complaints were useless; for Elizabeth had as little respect for the personal dignity of her bishops as for their estates.

The relations of Spain and England during these years were often strained to the point of war. Elizabeth secretly assisted

the Dutch, and Philip encouraged her subjects to ^tnand rebellion. Each monarch suspected the other of

plotting assassination; nor would either have grieved if some fanatic had attempted it. Spaniards killed Englishmen wherever they met them, and Englishmen hunted Spaniards up and down the high seas. Yet the two countries were nominally at peace; and the two monarchs were constantly exchanging fair words and large promises. Elizabeth, however, continued to encourage her seamen to prey upon Spanish commerce ; her eyes glistened with pleasure at tales of adventure in the Spanish seas, where English pirates boarded the great galleons and turned their tons of precious metal toward English ports. In this half legalized piracy the people also took a deep patriotic interest; the names of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, were honored at every English fireside. In 1677 Drake sailed for the Pacific, sacked towns and cities along the coast of South America, seized

1568-1580] THE COHPAmr OF JB8U8 295

and scuttled Spanish ships, and at last, after planting the English flag in California and sailing clear round the world, entered Plymouth in 1580 with his ship heavily loaded with gold, silver, and precious stones. It was piracy, pure and simple; but it was a great school for the training of a navy, and it cost nothing.

In retaliation for English piracy, Philip offered assistance to the Irish, who were as usual in arms against England. Queen Attempt of Mary had planned to settle Irish affairs by the intro- iA^ein ^^^^i<^^ 0' English colonists and a vigorous suppression Ireland, of the Irish in their favor; so little had the religious quarrel yet obscured the original race quarrel. Her plan, how- ever, had not been inaugurated save in the counties of Kings and Queens. Through Elizabeth^s reign the old struggle still smouldered, and in 1580 Philip attempted to fan the embers into new flame by sending over a large Spanish force to famish a rallying point for the discontented Irish. But the Spaniards were quickly routed and the danger of Spanish interference in Ireland passed by.

Elizabeth had now reigned twenty-two years. During the first ten years she had maintained a judicious spirit of conciliation Eiizaheih towards her subjects of all creeds. She had frowned cmnnany ^V^^ extravagance of all kinds, and as long as her of Jesus. people observed the laws outwardly she left them to themselves. But during the second decade it had become increasingly diflScult to sustain this judicious course, — due mainly to the changing tone of Catholicisni itself. Hundreds of English subjects had fled to Spain and other Catholic countries, where they found ready sympathy among their fellow religionists; many also had come directly under the influence of the Company of Jesus and committed their lives to the work of restoring Catholicism in those countries which had lapsed from the old faith. Chief among the English members of the order was William Allen, a graduate of Oxford, who in 1568 had founded at Douai in the Netherlands a college for the training of secular clergy. In 1578 he began to send over his missionaries to England to attack Protestantism in its stronghold. The first of these were Bobert Parsons and Edmund Campion. Parsons was cool, calcn*

296 THE DUEL WITH SPAnr

lating, and self-possessed. Campion was an enthusiast, but singularly pure-minded, modest, and gentle. By the law it was a dangerous thing to celebrate the Mass, or to say aught against royal supremacy; it was treason. Heretofore, however, while Elizabeth had left the sword suspended, she had been careful not to execute the terrible penalty. But the renewed agitation roused the government to action. More stringent laws were passed against the Catholics. The maximum fine which might be levied upon recusants J Catholics who refused to attend the Anglican service, was raised to £20 a month. An active search, also, was made for propagandist missionaries. Campion was taken and executed. Parsons escaped to the continent. The sword of persecution had again fallen, and from this time to the outbreak of the civil war in the next century, the Catholic clergy continued to exercise their functions at the peril of their lives.

CHAPTER VII

ELIZABETH; THE DUEL WITH SPAIK ELZZABETH, 1584-1603

The year 1584 witnessed a marked change in Elizabeth's foreign policy. The death of Alengon in June had left the Huguenot,

Henry of Xavarre, the heir to the French throne, and Ortsia of jn their alarm the French Catholics had once more taken

up arms. The death of Alen9on, moreover, had vir- tually dissolved the long alliance of England and France, and in the event of Catholic success France was almost certain to join with Spain against England. If this were not enough to stir Elizabeth out of her negative policy, the assassination of William of Orange on July 10, by leaving the Netherlanders without a leader, promised to end the Dutch war in Philip's favor, and Elizabeth knew well that with France distracted by civil war and the Netherlanders crushed, Philip would turn upon her in order to punish her for the piracies of her people and her encouragement to his rebellious subjects. The Dutch appealed to Elizabeth to put herself at the head of a Protestant league. Such a responsibility was by no

1585, 1586] DEATH OP MARY QUEBK OF SCOTS 297

means to her liking, yet she saw that at all hazards the Dutch must be supported.

At home, also, the friends of the imprisoned Queen of Scots, with persistent faith in their cause, had continued to plot for the

destruction of Elizabeth, and the complicity of pioucuhame. ^^^^^zAj the Spanish ambassador, in one of these

plots had led to his dismissal in June. When, a few weeks later, the news reached England of the success of the plot against William of Orange, the excitement knew no bounds, and in November bore fruit in a widely extended patriotic league, or association, for the defense of the queen. Catholic Englishmen as well as Protestants joined the league and swore to defend the queen with life and goods, and if she were assassinated, to hold responsible the person benefited by the act. The "person** referred to in these ambigaous terms was of course Mary Queen of Scots. In 1585 parliament legalized the association, and in August Elizabeth definitely broke with Spain by openly entering into a treaty with the Dutch; in January she sent an armed expedition to the Netherlands.

Little came of this first open essay of Elizabeth against Spain. The chief incident of the expedition was the death at Zutphen of the Theexpedu J^^^S Sir Philip Sidney, distinguished as diplomatist, Netheri^ids s^^di^r, and poet. His fame to-day rests upon the ^^' Arcadia. Robert Dudley, the earl of Leicester, had

been put in command of the expedition. He was no match, how- ever, for the duke of Parma, the renowned soldier who confronted him, and returned in a few months, having done little for the Netherlands and embarrassed the queen by accepting in her name, but greatly to her disgust, the title and powers of governor-general. It would seem that the temper of the country and the increas- ing severity of the late acts of parliament ought to have warned

Mary's friends of the danger of farther plotting against vmviotaiui the life of Elizabeth. But in 1586 a new plot, more Mary Queen serious than any yet unearthed, was brought to light;

the conspirators were arrested and put to death. Unfortunately for Mary, two letters written by her to Anthony Babington, the chief conspirator, commending his plot, fell

298 THE DUEL WITH SPAIIT [kubabbb

into the hands of Elizabeth's secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham. Parliament had already in the previoas year, passed an act in general but unambignous terms, empowering the appointment of a commission to try Mary in case she should be privy to a plot for the assassination of Elizabeth. It was evident enough that her existence was a constant encouragement to plotters like Babington, and with a Spanish invasion threatening, it was hardly good policy to forbear longer. Yet there were serious legal technicalities in the way of a trial; Mary was not a subject of Elizabeth; moreover she had appealed to her as an exile. Even were she subject to the laws of England her part in the Babington plot could hardly be deemed by an ordinary court of law worthy of death. The com- mission, however, found her guilty of complicity, and a few days later parliament by formal vote petitioned that the sentence of death be carried out. Elizabeth signed the death warrant, but refused to authorize the execution. Finally, the council, per- ceiving that the queen was determined to shirk all responsibility for the deed, gave orders for the execution, and on the 8th of February, 1587, Mary, after nineteen years of captivity, was beheaded at Fotheringay. Elizabeth immediately disclaimed the act and with unspeakable meanness, fined and dismissed Secretary Davison who had acted as the instrument of the council. As for the nation, the news of Mary's death was everywhere received as the news of a victory; bells were rung and bonfires were lighted. A great sense of relief came over the people. The last fear of civil war had been dispelled.

If, however, the strength of conspiracy had been broken at home by the execution of Mary, the expediency of the measure Preparatian ^^ ^J ^^ means justified by the efl'ect abroad. The %rwlrf ^^^^ ^^ Mary's death at once united Elizabeth's 1667, foreign enemies and precipitated the struggle which

had been approaching for twenty years. Elizabeth, however, had no thought of waiting for the blow to fall before she began action. Though war had not yet been declared, she dispatched Drake with a little fleet of twenty-four sail to watch the Spanish coast. With a boldness that astounded Europe he ran into the harbor of Cadiz, and in spite of the forts, burned the ships building there

\G67] THE ABHADA S99

for the Englisli expedition and destroyed immense quantitieB of naval stores. He also made an attempt to enter the Tagus where other ship-building was going on. The destruction of Philip's shipping compelled him to postpone his expedition until the nexfc year.

It was Philip's plan to have the fleet act in conjunction with the duke of Parma, who was to throw an army of 30,000 men pj^^^ into England from the Netherlands. This army had Sh^Jn^'th of ^*^^*lly ^^^^ gathered in 1 687, but when * * the Armada' ' iwi^tu^u, finally sailed in 1688 it had dwindled to 17,000 men. The fleet consisted of 132 vessels of war and some 40 transports, manned by 7,400 sailors and 19,000 soldiers. No expense had been spared; the expedition was also immensely popular; the best blood of Spain was represented on the decks. In England great dismay took possession of all classes, when once it was known that the huge Armada had actually spread her wings over the ocean, and was drawing nearer with every swelling breeze. And yet the danger was by no means as serious as the people imagined or as tradition has reported. The armament of Philip was greatly inferior in real fighting efiSciency to the fleet which Elizabeth had prepared to meet it. The English vessels were of an improved type, developed out of the piracies of the last twenty years; they sailed much faster than the Spanish high-deckers, and were more easily managed; they were also better officered and more effectually manned. They carried heavier guns and more of them, and could fire three shots to the Spaniards' one. The English gunners, also, far outclassed the Spaniards as marks- men. As one of Drake's captains wrote, ''Twelve of her Majesty's ships were a match for all of the galleys in the king of Spain's dominions."

To supplement these preparations to meet the fleet at sea, an army of 16,000 men was gathered at Tilbury to defend London, Pmaraiifm and another army of 30,000 was mustered in the io meet midland counties ; it was also arranged that upon the

land. first appearance of the Armada within the narrow seas,

beacon fires should be kindled from every hillside in the kingdom and every shire should summon its militia into the field; that is,

800 THE DUEL WITH SPAIIT [iLBAnai

practically the whole male population of England were to be called out to confront the Spaniard, the moment he should set foot upon English soil. The English fleet had been divided into two squadrons ; the one under Lord Henry Seymour, the youngest son of the protector, lay off the Netherlands blockading its ports; the other under Lord Charles Howard, grandson of the hero of Flodden, supported by Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, lay at Plymouth guarding the entrance to the Channel.

The Spanish Admiral, Medina Sidonia, had been ordered to avoid Plymouth, but for some unexplained reason, on July 20, he passed by within easy reach of the town ; the English tumofme captains at once saw their advantage and in their swift crafts put out in pursuit. With the weather gauge in their favor they could follow the huge galleons at will, peppering away at them with perfect impunity and darting swiftly out of reach when a Spaniard turned and attempted to close. The two fleets moved slowly up the Channel, keeping up a running fight until they reached Calais on the 27th. Medina Sidonia expected to find Parma waiting for him at Dunkirk; but Parma was still at Bruges and nothing was ready. This was bad enough, but the English had followed their quarry to cover, and now, hovering in the offing, showed no inclination to allow the Spaniards to wait until Parma had retrieved his neglect, or his blunder. On the night of the 29th, taking advantage of a northeast wind, they drove a fleet of fire-ships into the harbor among the crowded Spanish shipping, throwing the crews into confusion, and enabling the English to follow up their success by a direct attack in the morning. As night drew down, the day was going against the enemy; the same wind which had brought in the fire-ships, was steadily crowding the Spaniards upon the Flemish shoals, and the Armada bade fair to end its career then and there, when the wind veered and enabled the distressed galleons to stand out into the Xorth Sea.

The Spaniards were now thoroughly disheartened ; Parma and his army of invasion had failed them, their ammunition had been exhausted, the crews had suffered serious losses, and the surviving ships had been severely strained by the experiences of the past week. All thought of descending upon the English

1688] THE HABPBELATB TBACTB SOI

coast was abandoned; yet they durst not again brave the Channel in their crippled condition. There was no help for it; and so

they sailed away into the North Sea in the vain hope of rfmndSeot- reaching home by rounding the northern headlands of

Scotland and passing down the west coast of Ireland. The same ill luck, however, pursued them to the end. The English had long since exhausted the ammunition, which the government in accordance with the miserly policy of Elizabeth had doled out in pitiably inadequate quantities, and had given up the chase, but gale after gale broke upon the now doomed Armada. The coasts of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland were littered with the wreckage. Two thousand corpses were counted on the beach of Sligo Bay. Of the 172 vessels which had so proudly sailed out of the harbors of Spain in the early summer, only fifty- three, shattered and useless, ever reached a Spanish port again.

In England the fate of the Armada was greeted with transports of unbounded joy. English seamen became more daring than ever

and began a series of attacks upon the exposed coasts fauure of the of Spain, which Philip was helpless to ward off. He

sued for peace; but the English had no thought of allowing their prostrate foe to rise, now that they had him at their mercy. They smote again and again, and when Philip died in September 1598, the war was still raging.

At home the dispelling of the Spanish phantom which had so long overshadowed the land, gave opportunity for the full play of

party animosities ; and soon it was evident that England prekue had purchased immunity from foreiirn attack, only at

TrOiCts " 1SS8 o » •/

' the expense of that unanimity which had made her heretofore invincible. In the very year of the overthrow of the Armada, a bitter assault was made upon the bishops in a series of pamphlets called the ''Martin Marprelate Tracts,'^ the authors of which were Separatists. The government replied by active per- secution; some of the Separatists were hanged and many others were driven from the country. Puritans, anxious as they were for reform, were bitterly opposed to the acts of the Separatists.

Parliament, also, the very stronghold of Tudor absolutiam^ began to show signs of restlessness and an unmistakable diai^08iLtv\'<QL

303 THE DUEL WITH SPAIK [

to reopen the contest with the crown for ancient rights, now too long not denied bat held in abeyance, and although the first steps were taken with evident timidity, and progress was slow, a new spirit was quickening into life, which had been unknown in the days of Henry VIII.

In 1601 this spirit successfully expressed itself in a protest on the subject of monopolies and patents. By long custom the

government claimed the authority to grant to individuals JJ^ImS^ or companies the sole right of making or dealing in a

particular article, or of carrying on a specified trade. Thus in 1600 the East India Company had been given a monopoly of the trade with the East Indies. Some monopolies and most patents were commendable, since without them the trade in question could not be carried on, the goods could not be manu- factured, or the new process or invention could not be introduced. The difficulty was that English monarchs had often granted monopolies and patents, where they were absolutely unnecessary and only served the purpose of filling the pockets of courtiers at the expense of the subjects. Such was the monopoly on playing- cards held by Sir Walter Ealeigh. There were monopolies also on leather, salt, currants, iron, ''ashes, bottles, bags, shreds of gloves," vinegar, coal, lard, oil, fish, and a hundred other com- modities. In 1601 the members of parliament arrayed themselves in an ominous majority against the privileges which the queen had showered upon her subjects. Elizabeth saw that she must yield, though at the beginning of parliament she had forbidden the Commons to debate the question. She now declared in a touching speech that the grievance should be amended, thanked the members for their zeal and kindness, and assured them of her good will and affection. ''There will never queen sit in my seat," she asserted, "with more zeal to my country, or care to my subjects. . . . And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, or shall have, any that will be more careful and loving."

After freeing the country from foreign danger, Elizabeth tameA upon Ireland with more determination than ever. In 1594

1508-1608] DEATH OF ELIZABETH 303

the Irish of Ulster rose under Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone; Spain sent assistance the next year, and in 1598, O'Neill inflicted

a serious defeat upon the English at the Blackwater. Hugh CTNem Elizabeth sent to Ireland as her commander, the earl

of Essex, her last favorite, a showy but inferior man.

Essex was defeated by O'Neill and returned to England in disgrace.

He had come home without leave, which was equivalent to

deserting his colors, and Elizabeth could not forgive the offense.

The earl was thrown into prison and though released death of the next year, was permanently out of favor. Over- whelmed by his disgrace, he plotted to remove the queen's ministers by force and compel her to name others who would be devoted to his interests. The call to arms, however, met with no response; he was seized, tried, aud sent to the block. One of the queen's attorneys at the trial of the earl was Sir Francis Bacon, who, although he had been befriended by Essex,

had now appeared against him. Bacon has been much Bawt^"^^ blamed for this, but without discrimination. He was

a cold, and consequently an unpopular man; he was witty and sarcastic, making few friends and many enemies; he was ambitious and not free from the sway of the meanest passions, espe- cially the desire to shine as a fine gentleman. He spent so much in show that he was forever borrowing and begging, demanding pro- motions, rewards, and ofiSces, and leaving his honest debts unpaid. Notwithstanding these reprehensible features. Bacon was one of the great men of his day and deserves a place in the memory of man* kind for his unselfish labors in the cause of science and humanity. He was a great lawyer, a politician, a man of the world, and above all a statesman, seeing clearly what was possible and what was not possible, and quite as clearly the means of attaining a desired end. The queen died in 1603 at the ripe age of seventy, revered and beloved by her people. Walsingham had preceded her in 1590

and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in 1598. Her last Elizabeth, great minister was Burghley' s son, Bobert Cecil, later

earl of Salisbury. In his hands the queen's cause was well served, and at her death he had made all things ready for her successor.

804 THE DUEL WITH SPAIN [blb4b:

Elizabeth's reign raised England to the first rank of European powers. She had been successful in war and prosperous in peace, and under the confidence which she created, the ^reSSr**'**' English people began to seek new and richer fields for the exercise of their energies. Of the men who were thus allured to careers of exploration and adventure, the name of Sir Walter Baleigh is perhaps the best known to Americans. He was a man of marvelous energy and ability, and has left a record as explorer, soldier, statesman, colonizer, and scholar. But his bad qualities were quite as eminent as his good. He was cruel, domineering, corrupt, and faithless; and at Elizabeth's death he was probably the most unpopular man in England. He made several attempts at colonization in America, chief of which was the expedition to Virginia in 1584, all unsuccessful but of value in preparing the way for the great era of colonization to follow. Among others who tried to colonize new lands or to open new avenues to commerce were Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who inspired the earlier schemes of Baleigh ; Sir John Hawkins, who introduced African slaves into the Spanish colonies of America; Drake also, famous for his exploits against the Spaniards and his voyage around the world; Frobisher, who sought for a northwest passage; Bichard Chancellor, whose efforts to open up a northeast passage to India brought him to Moscow in 1553 and led the next year to the forming of the famous Moscovy Company, antedating by forty-six years the founding of the yet more famous East India Company. In England itself men were at no less important tasks. Sir Thomas Gresham founded the Eoyal Exchange in 1560, and put in operation a reform of the currency, which was successfully carried through by Elizabeth's ministers.

The result of all this busy striving was the enrichment of England, and the further strengthening of the middle class which Henry VII. and Henry VIII. had done so much to foster. In the first parliament of James, it is estimated that the House of Commons represented three times the wealth of the House of Lords.

Equally great were the literary triumphs of Elizabeth's reign. The early Tudor period had been comparatively barren. Sir

LITERARY TRIUMPHS OF ELIZABETH'S REION 80S

Thomas More and the Bible translators, Tyndale and Coverdale, have already been mentioned. Granmer's power is shown in the LUerani tri- P^ayer-book of Edward. In poetry Skelton was pop- Ti^urhcfh'8 ^^^^> Wyatt and Surrey also had won unfading laurels reign. before they staked their lives in the mad game of

politics. These, however, were only pioneers; their work, an earnest of what was to come after in the full blaze of Benaissance which marked the latter days of Elizabeth. Of the masters who belong to this later era, who have made this reign an epoch in the development of English literature, no name is so universally known and honored without question, as that of William Shakspere. But close behind him there rise a score of others: Spenser, famous for his Faerie Queene; Raleigh, poet and writer of elegant prose ; Marlowe, the dramatist whose marvelons lines entranced those who listened; Ben Jonson, scholar and wit; Bacon, associated with the earlier triumphs of inductive science; Sir Philip Sidney, the poet of feeling and skill; Beaumont and Fletcher, famous yoke-fellows in play-writing; Greene also, and Peele, Webster, Ford, and a host of others only a little less worthy. These are the men who helped to make Elizabeth's reign memorable, and to perpetuate the glory of England and her queen.

The century had been filled with fathomless turmoil and ceaseless strife. The foundations of the deep had been broken

up, and the disturbed waters in wild tumult had surged strife of the and resurgcd in their efforts again to secure

equilibrium. The closing years of Elizabeth's reign marked the period when that equilibrium was once more temporarily restored. The struggle of Germany with Charles V. had ended in 1555 in the Peace of Augsburg, — a treacherous peace with its legal recognition of the Protestant states and "its wretched rule of mock toleration." Philip and the League had failed to prevent the accession of Henry of Navarre in France; and although Ilenry had sealed his success by embracing the faith which he had been all his life fighting, he did not forget his old allies and friends, and in 1598, by the Edict of STantes, secured toleration for the French Protestants. The same year the

806 THB DUEL WITH BPAIK [

Eloabbtb

long struggle of France and Spain ended in the Peace of Venrins. Philip II. died within the year, and his son Philip III., who had none of his father's taste for war and intrigue, whose character was the best pledge for the continuance of the peace, succeeded him. With Philip II. gone and France at peace with Spain, the English had little excuse for carrying on the war further; all active interest in the original issues of the war had long since been lost in the new objects which were already drawing the energies of Englishmen into other channels. Formal peace, however, was not declared until the second year of the new reign.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Tbm Chubcr in THB MiDDUB Aoss: Bemont and Monod (Adams), Mediaeval Europe, Chaps. XXIX-XXXI; Moncrief, A Short History of the Chrittian Churoh, pp. 900-377; Adams, CivUiMoUon during the Middle Agee, Chaps. V, X, XVI; Stubbs, C, if., VoL III, Chap. XIX.

Pbsparation tob ths Retormation: Terry, pp. S28-53S; Moncrief, pp. 906-170; FiaheT^TheB^ortnation, Chap. Ill; Seebohm, The Era of the Protestant B^ormation, pp. t-«; Ranke, History of JSngland, Vol. I, Bk. II; Raxike, History of ths Fopes, VoL t,Bks.I-IIL

THB RBKAIB8ANCB IN ENOI.AND: Green, H, E, P., n, pp. 78^, 93-106; Seebohm, 7^ Oaford Btformers; Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, Chap. XV; Mllman, Savonarola, Erasmus, <ind other Essays; Ranke, History of England^ VoL I, Bks. n and III; Colby, Selections, px). 190-188, 185-140.

English Indttstbt and Commercn during thn Tudob Pbbiod: Barnard, pp. 870-308; Cmmlngham, The Growth of English Ind, and Com,, VoL I, Bk. V; Green, H. E. P., n, pp. 886-303.

Thb Tudob Coubts: Prothero, Select Statutes and Otfur Constitutional Documents, Introduction, pp. zcvlllcxlx and 227-331; Taswell-Lang^ead, pp. 152, 153,810; Sco- fleld, A Study of the Court of Star Chamber; Llngard, VI, p. 846; Adams and StfO- phens, pp. 214, 810-814.

THB Tudob Foreign Poucy: Seeley, Growth of British Policy, VoL I, pp. 1-861.

Thb Tudob Settlement ot Ireland: Green. H. E. P., U, pp. 17M78, 180-184, 836, 886, 868-870, 860, 361, 411 and 412; Iiecky, History of England, VoL II, Chap. VL

William Ttndalb and the Earlt English Biblb: Llngard, VoL V, pp. 110, ill: Froude, History of England, VoL II, p. 40; III, pp. 81, 82, 87; Robert Demaus, Mfe cj Tyndale,

The Six Articles: Gee and Hardy, pn, 808-310; Green, H, E. P., VoL n, p. 186; Llngard, VoL IV, pp. 120-183.

Edward Seymour, Lord Protector: Green, H. E, P., Vol. n, pp. 224-234; Fronde, Vol. V, pp. 1 6-862 : Pollard, England under Protector Somerset; L&igard, VoL V, pp. 831-338; Colby, Selections, pp. 150-152.

The Marian Persecutions: Terry, pp, 588, 688; Green, J7. E. P., VoL n, pp, 266-861,

861-286; Llngard. VoL V, pp. 464-4&. John Knox and the Scottish Reformation: Greon, H E. P., VoL n, pp. 270-886,

310-342. 344-346; Burton, History of Scotland, Vols. Ill and IV.

Thb Puritans: Gee and Hardy, pi>. 402 et seq. ; NeaL History of the Puritans; Green, Froude, and Llngard, as above.

Mart Stuart: Green, H, E. P., VoL n, pp. 348-364. 861-864, 872^184, 436488; Burton, Vols. Ill and IV; Froude and Llngard, as above.

THE Armada: Green, H. E, P., VoL II, pp. 418-458; Froude, VoL Xn, pp. 304-644; Lln- gard, VoL VI, pp. 470-517.

The England op Elizabeth: Green, H. E. P., VoL n, pp. 884-600; Crelghton« Ths Age of Elisabeth, pp. 100-887; Ranke, Hist, cf England, VoL I, Bk. Vn.

PART m— NATIONAL ENGLAND

THE ERA OF NATIONAL AWAKENING BOOK m— POLITICAL REVOLUTION

FBOM ie08 TO 1689

CHAPTER I

THE BREACH BETWEEN KIKO AKD COMMONS

JAMES I., ]Ga3-lS25 CUARLEa I., 1625-1628

The snccessor of Elizabeth, with the crown, inherited the arbitrary system of the Tndors and the numberless abuses which had crept in as a result of their long impunity in violating the letter and the spirit of the laws. Scotland and Ireland, also, had their own problems to settle as well as those which had arisen out of their relations to England. There were, moreover, grave con- tinental questions which were pressing for immediate settlement, questions which had grown up out of the struggle of Holland and Spain, and again of Spain and France, in all of which England had been more or less involved in spite of the conservative policy of Elizabeth

It was a time, therefore, when England more than ever needed a king who should be resourceful, sagacious, and broad enough in

his sympathies to touch all the manifold interests JJ^^^o/ which the English crown had come to represent at the

opening of the seventeenth century. But unfortunately James I. possessed no one of these needed qualifications. He was thirty-seven at the death of Elizabeth and had been a king since infancy ; but he belonged to that class of minds who never learn

308 KINO AKO COMMONS [l

anything, and never forgefc anything; hence his experience in Scotland had profited him little. He had been well educated and knew more of the history of^his own country and of neighboring peoples than most of the statesmen of his time. But his learning had brought him little wisdom and left him only a conceited pedant, absurdly vain of his accomplishments, with unlimited confidence in his own powers, and ready to be victimized by the first designing courtier who loudly sounded his praises as ''the British Solomon.'*

Yet there was some good in this pedant king; he was affable, moral, and actuated by the best of motives. In some things he

was even in advance of^ his times ; he hated war and undentand was ** intellectually tolerant." He wished particularly

to treat the Catholics with lenity. He saw also that the peace of the island depended upon the complete union of England and Scotland, and sought this union as a definite policy. But unfortunately, like many a wiser man of his day, he failed utterly to understand the Puritans. A bitter experience in Scot- land had taught him to hate its ofQcious Presbyterianism, and to long for the land where the ecclesiastical lords were the servants of the crown, not its masters. Hence when he entered England he proposed to do what he could to strengthen the hands of the bishops, and would make no concessions to the party who were crying out against the corruptions of the established clergy. He saw in the cry for ecclesiastical reform, only an attack upon the crown itself; as he was fond of saying, **No bishop, no king.** He thought he knew the English character and plumed himself on his ability to give the Englishmen just what they wanted. Yet almost his first act on entering the country was to hang an ordinary pickpocket without trial.

When James reached London he found the court divided into two parties, as they favored continuing the long war with Spain

or bringing it to a close. The natural instinct of James partieaof was for peace and this threw bim at once under the

1608*

infiuence of the powerful little man, who for nine years remained his chief minister of state, Robert Cecil, son of the late Lord Burghley.

1608. 1604] THE HAMPTON COURT GOKFEBENOB 809

The king and Cecil at once set about making peace with Spain, and a defensive treaty with France. This policy was

bitterly opposed by Baleigh and his friends, who led ormainpiou^ the War party, and they so far forgot themselves as to

discnss a plan for getting rid of Cecil by force. Lord Gobham, a friend of Raleigh, also entertained the idea of placing Arabella Stuart on the throne. There was some wild talk, in addition, of getting help from Spain.

While Cobham and Baleigh were thus casting about in their minds for the best way to get rid of Cecil, some of the Catholic

priests and their sympathizers, who were greatly ij^fty« incensed at James because he had not lived up to

certain promises of toleration which it was alleged he had made while in Scotland, were also talking over a scheme, equally wild and impracticable, of seizing James and frightening him by throats of personal violence into keeping his promise. This plot is known as the bye plot in distinction from the plot of Baleigh and Cobham which was designated as the main plot. The two plots had no connection, save as George Brooke, a brother of Lord Cobham, was connected with both. But it pleased Cecil to arrest all concerned and try them as though the plots were one. Brooke and Watson, a Catholic priest, were hanged; but Cobham, Baleigh, and Lord Grey de Wilton, a Paritan, were respited and sent to the Tower.

In the meantime James had been brought face to face with the religious problem in a still more annoying form in the shape of TheHamp- the "Millenary Petition,*' so called because purporting amftrenct, to havc the support of "morc than a thousand" clergy- 1604. * men of the established church. The tone of the document was moderate enough ; but it had emanated from the Paritan wing of the church, and the conservative elements at once took alarm, the two universities leading in the tirade against those who publicly found ** fault with the doctrine or discipline of the Church of England." James meant to give the petitioners a fair hearing and appointed the 14th of January for a conference at Hampton Court, in order to hear arguments of the contending parties for and against the petition. For a whole

810 KING AND COMMOKS [jai»l

day lie listened to the discnssion patiently, bnt at the second meeting an nnfortuaate mention of ''presbyters'' by one of the disputants roused the king and he plunged into the debate. "Presbytery,** he shouted, "agreeth as well with monarchy as Ood with the devir"; he would make the Puritans conform, or "harry them out of the land, or else do worse.*' The conference from which so much was expected, broke up in confusion* It had ended in the total defeat of the Puritans; nor was the wrath of the king to pass with a harmless outburst of hot words. Early in 1605 he compelled the Puritan clergy to vacate their pulpits. Peace within the church was henceforth impossible.

The king's treatment of the Catholics was as reckless as his treatment of the Puritans. James respected the old church as

the mother of the Anglican Church, and he desired ilScaaJ)Hc8, ^^^^ ^^® Catholics should be tolerated. He honestly wXcSlTpioL wished to mitigate the action of the severer Tudor ^irns!^^ laws. Yet the Catholics were far from satisfied ; they

wished James to restore to them all the rights of citizenship, a thing which he could not do without the consent of parliament, and when in 1604 parliament compelled him to allow the "penal laws" against Catholics to be executed, a few hotheads determined upon a plan which only the wildest desperation could justify even to themselves. They proposed to blow up the House of Lords at the moment when, at the opening of parliament, the king shonld go tliere with his council to meet the Commons. Then having swept away the entire Protestant government. King, Lords, and Commons, they would raise the country and put one of James's children on the throne. The leader was Bobert Gatesby, a man of good family, 6t great energy and courage, with whom were associated Thomas Percy of the old Northumber- land family, Thomas Winter, and others; not least among them was Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshire soldier of fortune, who had fought for Spain against the Netherlanders. The plotters got control of the cellars under the House of Lords and here stored a quantity of gunpowder. The day for the meeting of parliament, after several postponements, had been finally fixed for the 5th of November, but on the night of the 4th the ministry, who had

16H 1605] THE GUKPOWOEB PLOT 311

got wind of the plot, had the cellars searched and fonnd Fawkes in charge of the powder barrels. The other conspirators fled to Holbeche House in Worcestershire and here made a brave fight for their lives. Catesby, Percy, and two others, were slain. The rest, most of them woanded, were taken to London, and there, with Fawkes, put to death with all the barbarity which the- times permitted.

The country was thoroughly alarmed, and in response to the cry for severer measures, in addition to the old laws, which had been burdensome enough under Elizabeth, parliament powder Plot cuactcd that no Catholic should practice law or medicine wmof or hold any oflBce in the government, whether civil, mil-

itary or naval; no Catholic could inherit real estate; live in London, unless engaged in trade; go more than five miles from his home, or appear at court. His house, also, was to be always open for inspection. All Catholic books were to be destroyed. It was a criminal offense to send a child to a Catholic school in England or abroad; while the attempt to convert a Protestant to Catholicism was to be punished by hanging.

It took James even less time to embroil himself with his parliament than with the religionists of his realm. His first parliament was summoned in March 1604. In his Ooodirtn'f directions to the electors he had warned them against sending to parliament any outlaws, or bankrupts, or men noted for superstitious blindness or turbulent manners. This was wholesome advice but the returns were to be sent to the Court of Chancery for review, and if any were not satisfactory they were *'to be rejected as unlawful and insuflScient." Here was a very important principle involved, which if unchallenged would practically leave in the king's hands the right of settling contested elections, and at a crisis enable him to determine altogether the complexion of the Commons. Fortunately a test case presented itself at once, in one Francis Goodwin, who had been sent up from Buckinghamshire. Goodwin was an outlaw, that is, he had an unsatisfied judgment of a court hanging over him, and was at once disqualified by the Court of Chancery. A new dection was ordered and Sir John Fortescue was returned.

812 KUXQ AND COMMONS [ Jai» l

But when parliament met, Goodwin claimed his Beat, and the Commons raised the point of privilege and sustained him, Jamet denied their point on the ground that all privilege had its source in the king^s grant. The Commons, however, carried the day ; both sides withdrew their candidates, but the king recognized the right of the Commons to decide contested elections.

STo soouer had Goodwin's case been closed than the Honse found another of its privileges violated. One of its members, named Sherley, had been arrested for debt, though Shertev'* according to parliamentary privilege, no member could be arrested during the session of parliament except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. Another quarrel followed which ended finally in the release of Sherley and a new recognition of the principle of freedom from arrest.

Another matter which James had upon his heart, was the organic union of the two kingdoms. The object was wise and statesmanlike, but James managed to prejudice his ^stmi^ case by his tactless impatience; he delivered long, tiresome speeches in broad Scotch, urging the bewil- dered parliament to act, and making no effort to conceal his contempt for the arguments of the opposition. The parlia- ment was not to be lectured into compliance. There were grave questions of royal prerogative involved. English merchants, also, were afraid to face the free rivalry of Scottish thrift ; and English politicians had no wish to share fat offices of state with James's countrymen. Parliament, therefore, went no farther than to abolish the old border laws, which had grown up in a time when the two nations were at constant feud. In 1608, in the test case of Robert Colville, who had been born in Edinburgh in 1G05, the English judges, by declaring him to be a natural sub- ject of the king of England, admitted all Scotsmen born after the accession of James, the post-nati^ to naturalization. Here the matter rested until the Act of Union of 1707 permanently united the two people in one state.

During the thirty odd years in which James had been reigning in Scotland, he had been forced to accommodate himself to the meager revenues of a country wliich was proverbially poor. He

1608-1611] THE AUTHORIZED YEBSION 813

was not, however, thrifty by nature, and when he found himself called at last to reign over a country which had the repatation of

being rich, like a poor tradesman who suddenly finds ofv^nSw himself a millionaire, he began to spend money as

though he expected never to see the bottom of the new treasure chest. Parliament, however, was in no mood to look leniently upon the king's ^'needless and unreasonable" extrav- agance, and, instead of money, gave him a lecture. Cecil, now earl of Salisbury, proposed to help the king by increasing the tax on certain imports and exports, impositions^ basing his action upon the right of the king to regulate foreign commerce. His position was contested by a London merchant named John Bate, but was sustained by the Court of Exchequer; the judges ruling that the king by royal prerogative might regulate foreign commerce. Upon this ruling, in 1G08, Salisbury, who had recently added to the duties of secretary those of lord treasurer as well, issued a new book of rates, which covered almost all articles of export or import and was intended to increase the royal revenues by about £70,000 a year. The precedent was too dangerous to allow to lie long unquestioned, and the impositiouB were very soon given a conspicuous place in the list of grievances which the Stuart parliaments were drawing out against the admin- istration.

Fortunately the growing distrust of king and parliament, which had thus far marked the first years of James's reign, had

not interfered with a great work which since 1604 had uedverSim' ^^^^ quietly Carried on by a committee of learned 2tr^'^^^ divines, who represented both parties in the English

Charch. This work was the famous ^'Eing James Version of the Scriptures," which was completed and published in 1611, and in spite of an early unpopularity and of many attempts since to secure greater accuracy of statement or more scholarly representation of Scriptural thought, still holds its sway among English-speaking peoples as the most popular version of the Bible.

Not less perplexing than the questions which confronted James at home were the questions which grew up out of the

314 KING AKD OOKKOBB [i

English hold upon Ireland. When Essex returned from Ireland in 1599 he had left the island in an uproar. His successor, Charles Blount, Lord Monntjoy, found Dublin and a few miles of the surrounding country virtually all that remained in the hands of the English. He was, however, a practical, thoughtful man, with the instincts of a soldier, and within three years had ended the revolt and regained possession of the island. A famine, which had followed the war with frightful ravages, completed the soldier's work. The energetio deputy covered the country with fortresses, small, but well garrisoned and provisioned, and so overawed the Irish nobles, that the earl of Tyrone submitted, and the earl of Desmond fled to Spain.

Mountjoy was followed by Sir Arthur Chichester who made an

able and determined effort to restore the conquered counties by

introducing the English system of government in the

tatum nf placc of the old tribal system. The tribal chieftains

Ulster .

became simple landlords, and their subjects tenants, who instead of the old irregular levies were hencef ortli to be liable to their lords only for fixed dues or services. The people as a whole were not altogether averse to the new order, and in spite of the vigorous opposition of the Irish chieftains, were beginning to understand the advantage of quiet and of the protection of the civil courts against the tyranny of their old lords, when James and his council determined to interfere, and deliberately adopted a gigantic plan of spoliation. They declared two-thirds of the north of Ireland confiscated to the crown and proceeded to allot thi lands to Scotch and English colonists. This colonization ot north Ireland, known as the ** Plantation of Ulster," was carried on with the usual indifference of a conquering people to the rights of a subject nation. The choicest lands were taken for the settlers, and the Irish were forced to content themselves with what was left. The new settlers, of the fervid Scotch Presbyterian type mostly, were energetic and thrifty people, and soon gave a good account of themselves in their growing wealth and prosperity.

The first parliament of James was dissolved in February IGU

161M614]

THE ADDLED PARLIAMENT

315

with mud followed

The foreign

Joliey qf ames.

ill feeling on both sides. The years which immediately ere full of important incident. James had ideas of his own about the proper foreign policy for England. He wished to put an end to religions warfare and proposed that he and his family should be the center round which a league of peace should form itself. A number of marriage projects in which the children of James were concerned were set on foot with the various Catholic courts of Europe. But in these negotiations James seems to have been the only party seriously in earnest. He was, moreover, vigorously opposed both by Salisbury and his own eldest son. Prince Henry, especially in the plan of an alliance with Spain, and largely by their influence in 1611 he was persuaded to consent to a union of his daughter Elizabeth with Frederick V., Count Palatine of the fihine, head of the league of Oerman princes known as the Protestant Union. The marriage was celebrated two years later when both Cecil and Prince Henry were in their graves.

Salisbury died in 1612 and James like Henry III. undertook to be his own chief minister. Like Henry III., also, he soon fell into the hands of unworthy favorites much to the disgust and scandal of the realm and to the utter confusion of the public service. Of these favorites the one who finally won the place of greatest influence with the king was Oeorge Villiers, after 1623 duke of Buckingham. Villiers was responsible for most of the later blunders of James. Within two years of the death of Cecil, the king's personal administration brought matters to such a pass that he was compelled to summon a parliament. When the new parliament came together, however, although some of the friends of the king had ^' undertaken^' to secure returns favorable to the crown, it was found that the spirit of the members was just as intractable as ever, and before they would pass an act to help the king out of his difficulties, they insisted that he should listen to their grievances. James, however, soon grew weary and sore under the incessant scolding of his **faithful and loving Commons" and, fully determined if possible to get along without this ungracious monitor in the future, dissolved his second parliament before even

James and the Addled Parliament 1614. The ^^under- takers.*'

816 KING AND COKMONB [Jai»L

a single bill had been passed. The king's friends dnbbed it in derision "The Addled Parliament."

The parliament was not the only body against whom James was compelled to defend the prerogatives which he had received from the Tndors. From the first he had shown a Dendeneeqf disposition to sustain the special courts whenever they Diamiasaiof came into conflict with the common law courts. The common law judges on their part felt an instinctive hostility to the extra legal powers which had descended from the Tudors. Their leader was Sir Edward Coke, eminent among the jurists of James for his knowledge of the common law. He had held the office of attorney general under Elizabeth, had been made Chief Justice of Common Pleas by James in 1606, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1613. Coke took his stand upon the principle that all questions of law between the king and the nation, that is questions of prerogative, should be submitted to the courts. He also upheld the supremacy of the common lave courts over the extra legal courts by declaring the right of the common law judges to limit the jurisdiction of these courts in special cases, and in supporting this view he had not hesitated to issue an injunction against the court of High Commission or to reverse a decision even of the court of Chancery. In his defense of the dignity of the common law courts the courageous chief justice had more than once been brought face to face with the king. In 1616 the contention between the king aiid his chief justice reached a crisis in which the king flatly contended that in any case in which the prerogative of the crown was concerned it was the duty of the judges to stay proceedings until they had flrst consulted the king. Coke saw that the whole question of the independence of the courts was at stake and brought all his wealth of legal learning and powers of argument to bear. James bullied and blustered, but mere volubility, of which he was always a master, was no match for the learning of the chief justice, and failing of other ways to silence his antagonist, James dismissed him from "the office which he had magnifled so highly."

During all these years Sir Walter Raleigh had remained in prison where his unfortunate plot against Cecil had brought him

1608-1619] DEATH OF BALEIGH 317

in 1603. He had amused himself by writing books and demising impossible schemes for bettering the finaneial conditions of the

goyernment. At last the report of the existence of a ^^ttoH o/ gold mine in South America won the ear of the king, and

in 1617 Raleigh was fitted out with a ship and sent to the Orinoco to find his marvelous mine. He was warned, how- ever, not to molest the Spanish or in any way embroil James with Spain. The expedition was a pitiful failure. Baleigh's men, apparently against his orders, attacked the Spanish town of St. Thomas, and refusing to go farther forced him to return empty handed. The English applauded the storming of St. Thomas and saw no crime in it; but James was bent upon maintaining his friendly relations witK Spain. It was determined, therefore, to sacrifice Raleigh to lae demand of Spain and accordingly soon after his return the sentence of 1603 was carried out. The people had long since forgotten the former unpopularity of Raleigh and looked upon him ^4n the tragedy of his death'' almost as a martjT. James was now the most unpopular man in England.

The immediate outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, however, soon drew the attention of the people to other objects and offered

James an opportunity of recovering their confidence. vieTUrtu But he had learned nothing bv his blunders, and

obstinately persisted in his course of antagonizing the nation at every step. In 1618, the Protestant assembly of Bohemia had refused to recognize longer as their king, Ferdinand, the head of the Austrian Hapsburgs, and had offered the throne to the Protestant Prince Frederick of the Palatine. Frederick accepted and was crowned August 26, 1619. Two days later, Ferdinand was elected emperor and at once brought the imperial power to bear against his rival. James was anxious to help his son-in-law, but it troubled him to reconcile his own position as champion of peace and the divine right of kings with the support of one whom he feared might be technically a rebel. He hesitated and dallied, and in his despair sought the interposition of Spain. He was foolish enough to think that by securing the marriage of Prince Charles with the Infanta of Spain, he might connect himself with the Catholic party in Europe and enlist Spain actively in behalf of

318 KING AKD COMMONS [i

his daughter's husband. The Spaniards, however, had no thought of supporting Frederick, but instead made ready to attack the Palatinate on their own account. Yet they were willing to let James hope, as long as he kept out of the war.

In 1620 Frederick suffered a serious defeat near Prague; the Spaniards, also, invaded the Palatinate. It was evident that

James must interfere if his son-in-law were to be saved. paruammt Still he hesitated. His people were furious, and from

all sides arose the cry for war with Spain. But Villiers, who had unbounded confidence in his own powers and was still hopeful of bringing about a general reconciliation through an English-Spanish marriage, insisted that there be no war; and yet it was not repugnant to his plans to make use of the existing war fever in order to put England on a war footing; — a threat which Spain might well hesitate to challenge. Accordingly James's third parliament was brought together in 1621. His attitude was conciliatory and coaxing; he pleaded for time in carrying on the present negotiations, but declared his intention, if the negotiations failed, of beginning war at once in defense of his son's territory and the Protestant religion. The Commons promptly voted the war supplies, and then as there was nothing else to do, they vented their impatience in a series of inquiries into the perennial subject of domestic grievances. In this they were supported by the venerable ex -justice Coke, who in spite of his years had come back to the attack on the king as full of fight as ever, and determined to carry on in the parliament the struggle which he had been forced to drop in the courts. The House first attacked the old abuse of monopolies and patents, in which James and his courtiers had been driving a thriving trade, and although the abuse

was not abolished until 1624, the protest was not lost. oT^^S^n!^*^ They then turned upon Sir Francis Bacon, Coke's old

enemy, who was attorney general at the time of Coke's dismissal, but had since been made chancellor, and impeached him upon charges of corruption. Bacon confessed and threw himself ipon the mercy of the peers. The king remitted the penalty but a valuable precedent had been established. The Commons had recovered an old and important weapon against crown ministers,

l(m-1624] THE SIGHT OF SPEECH 819

which since the impeachment of Suffolk in 1450, had been left to rust along with other forgotten but not outworn constitutional forms. It was found to be just as terrible and just as efficient aa ever, and from this time forward, during the whole Stuart period, there was scarcely a parliament that did not try to mark some minister for impeachment.

In the meanwhile, parliament, emboldened by its successes^ began to show an alarming disposition to help the king in hia Attack cjT ** negotiations. " It learned, also, that he had proposed rnivoSeof ^ ^^® Spaniards to secure toleration for English free speech, Catholics, and to show their temper the Commons decreed that the recusants should pay a double share towards the war fund; they also petitioned the king to put the laws against Catholics in force, and asked him to secure a Protestant bride for his son. Encouraged by Yilliers and Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, James forbade the members to discuss ''mysteries of state'' and covertly threatened the leaders by announcing his right to punish members for their conduct as members of the House. This direct attack upon the right of speech again brought forward the old lion Coke, and under his leadership the Commons ordered to be enrolled upon their journals the famous opinion that ''in the handling and proceeding'' of the affairs of the realm "every member of the House hath, and of right ought to have, freedom of speech, to propound, treat, reason, and bring to conclusion the same." In connection with these discussions are to be noted the names of John Pym, a young member from Bedfordshire, and Thomas Wentworth, a member from Yorkshire, names soon to be household words in England. James sent for the Journal and tore out the protest, and then dismissed parlia- ment. He also sent Coke, 'Phelips, and Mallory to the Tower, and confined Pym to his house.

With the obstinate tenacity of a small mind James continued to cling to his Spanish marriage scheme. But matters were pressing in the Palatinate. The Protestants had placed their cause in the hands of Mansfeld, a reckless soldier of fortune, who was not only no match for Count Tilly, the general of the Catholic League, but had alienated the friends of Frederick by his reckless

820 KIKO AND OOIOCOKS [ummU

treatment of the peasantry of the Rhine country. The Protest- ant Onion withdrew from the straggle; Heidelberg and Mann- heim fell ; Frederick fled to Holland and his electoral toSnSpaSk ^<>^or ^^ given by the Emperor Ferdinand to the duke of Bavaria. James in his despair listened to a wild scheme of Yilliers, and sent him with Prince Charles to Madrid to push the suit in person. The appearance of the two at the Spanish court compelled the Spaniards to throw off the mask, and even Villiers saw at last how useless it was to expect Spain to unite with England against the other branch of the House of Austria. Had the attempt been made earlier good might have come of it, though not in the way that James had planned. But now Spain had carried its purpose; the Palatinate was ruined ; Frederick had been punished and the Spanish court sought only to shake off the English without a quarrel.

Villiers and Charles returned angry and disgusted, and as determined to make war on Spain as before they had been set upon the alliance. The nation which had been furious andCharUi* wheu the objcct of the prince's expedition became known, went wild with joy when he returned without his bride. The favorite, now duke of Buckingham, leaped at once into unbounded popularity. James, broken in body, the result of his ungovemed habits of eating and drinking, and worn in mind by anxiety and vexation, thought no longer of resistance. He left the conduct of affairs virtually in the hands of Charles and the duke. Parliament was summoned; few voices were raised for peace ; a large sum of money was voted for the war. Parlia- ment, however, refused to trust the king and placed the disburse- ment of the money in the hands of a commission. The lord treasurer, Middlesex, opposed the war and at the instigation of Charles and Buckingham was impeached on a trumped-up charge of corruption. The king looked on passive but disgusted and cynical. The session ended in general good humor and the members went home, well satisfied with themselves and the young prince who was soon to be at the head of the government in name as he was now in fact.

Buckingham and Charles now had the power in their hands,

1625] ' CHARLES I. 321

but with inconceivable blindness, instead of letting the marriage question rest, began negotiations with the French king, Louia

XIII., for the purpose of securing the hand of bis sister Buchiiigham Henrietta Maria. James had promised parliament

not to interfere with the laws against recusants, but Louis insisted upon a promise of toleration for English Catholics. Parliament, moreover, had indicated its desire to attack Spain directly on the seas, her only vulnerable point ; but the advisers of tbe king thought only of winning back the Palatinate. Twelve thousand Englishmen were enlisted and sent into the Rhine country and placed under the command of the ruffian Mansfeld, where they were left to die of cold, famine, and pestilence. To add to the general discontent the marriage treaty with France was duly signed, and the English government pledged itself to support the French king against his enemies, — an unfortunate pledge which was construed by the people later as a promise to assist the French king against his rebellious Protestant subjects. Here was trouble enough for the future, and in the midst of the confusion, the old king died, March 1625.

The death of James made little change in the political out- look. The new king was a handsome, taciturn man of twenty-five,

with a full share of those external graces of royalty char^ury which his Conceited father had so sadly lacked. He

was dignified, temperate, and industrious. He pos- sessed, however, no great ability. He was reserved and cold. He was lacking both in frankness and decision; and as is common with vacillating natures was incurably obstinate. He could neither think clearly nor express himself clearly. It was impossible to tie him down to any promise, or bind him to a fixed policy. And yet he prided himself on his consistency. He was disposed to treat his people kindly, but had no appreciation of their wants, and understood their temper even less than his father. All in all he was entirely unfit to play the king in such perplexing times.

From the first Charles was at war with parliament. It met in June 1625. The French marriage had taken place in May. The Commons were not pleased, nor did they approve the attitude of

322 KIKG AKD COKVOKS [oiuBUiL

the king toward the English Catholics, whom he was striying to protect in accordance with the marriage contract. They were First quarrel inclined to ^find fault, moreover, with the management andMt^ of the war ; they distrusted Charles and most, Buck- pariiament ingham, whose influence at court was greater than ever. When Charles asked for a liberal grant to meet the burdens of the war, they petitioned for the enforcement of the laws against recusants and gave him but a small part of the money needed. The old tariff on leather, wine, and wool, known as tunnage and poundage, which for one hundred and^ fifty years, it had been customary to grant to every king for life, they voted for one year only. The bill failed to secure the assent of the Lords, and the revenues from this source, which had become very important in consequence of the steady growth of English commerce, would have been cut off altogether had not the king insisted on collecting the tax without an act of parliament. Another grievance, fully as serious, grew up out of the promise of Charles to assist the French in the war against Spain. He had lent a man of war and seven merchant ships to his new allies ; but Richelieu, the keen minister of Louis XIII., had no intention of enteriDg upon a foreign war, before he had reduced the strength of the Huguenot cities somewhat, whose semi-independence, secured by the Edict of Nantes, might prove a serious threat to the peace of the realm. Hence the rumor quickly spread in England, that English- men had been sent to help Richelieu crush French Protestants, and added greatly to the disquiet and irritation of parliament. The members at last turned upon Buckingham, whom they justly held responsible for the French alliance, and attacked him by name. Tlie king to save his minister dissolved his first parliament. The parliaments were now steadily feeling their way back to the old constitutional grounds which they had occupied in the FiUiJe effort ^^^^ ^^ Henry IV. , when they had nominated the king's ^J^'IfnJr ^'Ouncil. But for the king to yield to this claim was Tpariiameia, to rcnounce a right which his predecessors had enjoyed since the days of Edward IV. Charles could not be expected to give up, therefore, without a struggle, for the essence of royalty in his way of thinking lay in the right of

16d6] BUOKIKGHAM 823

the king to name liis own ministers. Parliament controlled the situation^ for it had left the king practically without funds, and he was compelled to call his second parliament at once. He thought if he could get rid of such leaders as Coke, Phelips, and Wentworth, he might control the other members, and hit upon the novel deyice of naming these men as sheriffs of their several counties, an office which debarred them from standing for reelection. By long-established custom the appointees could not refuse this high mark of the king^s favor and esteem ; but the cause suffered in nothing, for a new leader was found in Sir John Eliot, a Cornish gentleman, with the fiery eloquence and devotion to popular rights of a Patrick Henry; easily stirred to indignant anger, warm-hearted and sympathetic, quick and keen, but not farsighted, and a thorough-going radical. He had once been a friend of Buckingham, but his eyes were now opened to the real worthlessness of the minister, and the House had hardly opened when he began the attack by demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the public business.

The second parliament met in February 1626. During the interval an expedition had been dispatched to Cadiz with the

idea of seizing the Spanish treasure fleet. The sailors, impeach howcver, had accomplished nothing beyond getting

gloriously drunk on Spanish wine, and the expedition had returned in disgrace. The House laid the responsibility upon Buckingham; it was one more evidence of the corruption and demoralization which he had wrought in the public service. .The vote to impeach was carried, and Eliot and Sir Dudley Digges presented the charges of the Commons before the Lords. Charles had protested when the vote was presented in the House, and now in his indignation, under the pretext that the two spokesmen of the House had used seditious language, he threw them into prison. The other members, however, stood by their colleagues and refused to do any business until they had been released. The king yielded and the attack upon the favorite was resumed; to escape the issue the king was again forced to dissolve parliament. It was now evident even to Charles that nothing was to be got out of parliament without the dismissal of Buckingham and

324 KINO AKD PABLIAKEirr [cbablbbl

this he waa determined not to do. To add to his difficulty, he

found himself threatened by war with France in spite of his

recent alliance; he was too weak to face the Spaniards

^chariL ^^ ^^® ®®*^» ^^ ^ assist his ally Christian of Denmark, who had been defeated at Lutter, and was suffering for lack of the help which Charles had promised. Money Charles must have, and if the parliament would not give it to him, he must raise it without parliament. He determined therefore to resort to the Tudor expedient of a **free gift"; and when the people refused to give, in his anger he resorted to tho more dangerous expedient of a forced loan. But here he met with resistance in the courts as determined and perplexing as in the Commons. Chief Justice Crewe of the King's Bench was dismissed. Those who refused the loan were thrown into prison if rich; if poor they had soldiers billeted on them, or were pressed into the army. Eliot and Wentworth and most of the leaders of the Commons, who were among the intractable, also found their way into prison. When five of the imprisoned attempted to sue out a writ of habeas corpus, by which the king's officer was compelled to specify the reason upon which he detained the prisoners, the king announced that it was not necessary for him to give any reason for imprisoning his subjects, except that such was his good pleasure.

To add to the excitement and confusion, war with France now began in real earnest. The English had seized French vessels on charge of carrying contraband goods to the Spanish 4^^^J5^ Netherlands, and the French had retaliated by seizing the English wine fleet. Charles sent Buckingham with an armament of 6,800 men to assist the people of La Rochelle, who were threatened with attack by the French government. Buckingham attempted to take the fort of St. Martin on the island of Rhe, which was held by the government troops and com- manded the entrance to the harbor, but after losing half his men was compelled to retire. Buckingham had really shown some traits of a competent commander; but the expedition had been badly organized and poorly equipped; his soldiers were mostly raw recruits, pressed for the occasion. He was therefore hardly

1627, 1628] THIRD PABUAMENT OF CHARLES 325

responsible for the failure. But public opinion was now too thoroughly wrought up to judge him fairly. The people laid to his charge not only the disgrace suffered by English arms but the loss of the thousands of men who had been forced to give up their lives in the profitless errand.

The breach between Charles and the nation was now all but irreparable. Time might heal it, were he at peace, and were it Serious no- Possible to get along without a parliament. But he ^^kiw/and^^ was not at peace ; on the contrary he was confronted parliament ]yj ^ ^^r with the two greatest powers of the west ; the country was defenseless and the treasury empty. He must nerve himself to meet another parliament.

CHAPTER II

THE ERA OF ARBITRARY GOVERNMEKT

CHARLES I., 16»1640

The urgency which compelled Charles to summon a parliament

warned him also to assume an attitude of conciliation. But the men who had suffered by the forced loans were in no fxiriiament mood to be coaxcd or wheedled. The campaign was bitter, and the returns went overwhelmingly in favor of the popular party ; the nation evidently was with the men who had resisted the king, and had sent them all back. They were all there : Coke, Wentworth, Eliot, Pym, and many others, destined to emerge from the obscurity of private life in the exciting struggle of the near future. Their recent sufferings had made them desperate, while the consciousness of popular support and that they spoke for the nation, made them bolder and more dangerous than ever. A wiser man than Charles would have moved warily; revolution was in the air.

It took the leaders some little time to determine the form in which parliament should present its demands to the king; but after long and vigorous debate the Commons agreed upon a peti-

826 ERA OF ABBITBABT OOTEBNMEKT [CBAuaiL

tion, which stated the grievances of the nation, recited the exist- ing laws bearing upon each, and called upon the king to give his

word that hereafter he would instruct his servants to ^Btohi^iSe. ^^®y them. Thus appeared the famous Petition of

Eighty an event fully as noteworthy in the annals of English constitutional history as the appearance of the Great Charter in the reign of John.

The king hesitated to commit himself in the unequivocal terms presented by the Commons, and accepted the Petition in terms so ambiguous that the suspicions of the Commons were aroused. In their anger they brought out the old whip, Vhich had so often made Charles quail before ; they proceeded to draw up a formal remonstrance, and, finally as their courage rose, attacked the duke of Buckingham by name as ''the grievance of giievances." Charles attempted to stay action by forbidding the Commons to proceed with the remonstrance, but at the threatened impeachment of the favorite, he yielded, and on June 7 appeared before the Houses, and pronounced the ancient formula which long usage had established as the legal mode of giving the royal assent. The members broke into a storm of applause; the good news ran into the streets; cannon were fired, and bonfires lighted. Throughout the kingdom there was wild exultation over the victory, which all supposed had now set the long quarrel forever at rest.

In the exuberance of good will the Commons at once granted five subsidies, amounting to about £350,000, which they had

virtually promised in case the king accepted the Urarwc Petition, and then proceeded to consider the granting

of tunnage and poundage for life. Unfortunately, however, for the continuance of this good feeling, the suspicions which the recent conduct of the king had awakened were not quieted, and before settling the question of tunnage and pound- age, the Commons after all determined to present the remon- strance, setting forth their opinions of the general conduct of the government, particularly of the continued levying of the duties in question without the sanction of parliament, and to call for the removal of Buckingham from the king's service. To prevent the

1628] WILLIAM LAUD 337

delivering of this remonstrance Charles adjourned parliament for six months.

In this memorable session parliament had also taken up the grievances of the Puritans against the Armiuians, as the anti-

Calvinist party in the church had now come to be 2i*5i?c5it«rck c^U®^> from Arminius, a Dutch reformer who had

opposed the sway of the Genovan^s theological ideas in the Low Countries. The party leaned naturally toward Episcopacy as the Puritans leaned toward Presbyterianism, and in the recent quarrels were inclined to support the crown as the Puritans were inclined to support the Commons, denouncing the parliament and preaching the payment of the forced loan as a duty. As soon, therefore, as parliament had been prorogued, Charles hastened to show his appreciation of these voices that had been raised in his behalf in his time of need; he brought William Laud from the unimportant see of Bath and Wells to the great see of London; he rewarded others by promotions and richer livings.

Laud was thoroughly detested by the Puritans. He was a little, red-faced man of mean appearance, a scholar of some ability

and undoubtedly sincere; but he was also narrow- £jjjj^ minded, obstinate, and devoid of tact. In the great

Puritan stronghold of London he was soon in hot water. He attempted to assure greater respect for the ** Com- munion Table" by ordering it to be placed at the east end of the churches, whereas the Puritans had adopted the practice of placing it at the side of the church, near the pulpit. The Puritans, also, had generally adopted the practice of itinerant preaching and lecturing. But Laud would allow no clergyman to preach save in his own pulpit, or where he had been specially licensed by his bishop. Some of these matters in this practical age seem trivial enough, but to the Puritan, Laud's innovations were the first step backward toward the old church, and the diocese soon became the scene of bitter strife. Thus the schism which was opening in the church became identified with the schism which was opening in the state.

Two other events of this period also powerfully affected the drift of parties: the defection of Wentworth from the popular

828 ERA OF ABBITBABT GOYEBNMENT [obabuiL

party, and the aBsassination of Buckingham. Wentworth had nobly led in the attempt to defend the nation against the dis- order which was sure to follow the continued viola- andBucit^ tion of the rights of subjects by the king's officers. He now shrank from the greater disorder threatened by what he believed to be a direct attack upon the dignity of the crown, and soon entered into the king's service as heartily and energetically as he had once led in the Commons. Charles admitted him to the peerage as Baron Wentworth, and finally sent him home to Yorkshire as president of the Council of the North, where his fearless energy performed a real service in redu- cing the lawless elements of that much-distressed region. Later Charles gave him a place in the Privy Council.

Buckingham was murdered at Portsmouth, August 23, by a poor fanatic, named Felton. The murder was inspired by As^asHnatum personal spite and not by political hatred, and yet so ^^j^2^^i unpopular was the duke, that the people took up the J9, leid. assassin as a hero, a martyr, and followed him to the

Tower with benedictions. To Charles, Buckingham was the real martyr.

When parliament met again in January, it was soon evident that the death of Buckingham had made no difference in the DiMoiutian Position of parties. The struggle went on just as mSmmeni ^^^^^^' ^^^ question of tunnage and poundage was S^<Sch*io*' ^^ ^^^® taken up. Merchants, encouraged by the ^*3». remonstrance of the last session, had refused to pay

the tax on the ground that it was contrary to the Petition of Bight, and the king's officers had seized their goods. The House, excited and angry, summoned the royal officers before them to answer the charge of collecting money illegally. Charles, however, would not allow the officers to appear, declaring that he alone was responsible for what had been done. Meanwhile, the House had also been waging warfare upon the Arminian clergy. Charles, who as usual did not understand the real spirit of the Commons, thought to give their ardor a chance to cool off and resorted to the expedient of preventing action by a series of ;^;Durnments. But this only annoyed and irritated, and when

1029] ELIOT'S REVOLUnOlJrS 339

on March 2, 1629, the Speaker, in accordance with instmctionB, attempted to declare the Honse adjourned for the third time within a fortnight, two members, Holies and Valentine, ^J^JJJ^ hurled him back into the chair and held him down, while in the midst of the wildest confusion Eliot man- aged to present three resolutions which declared all those who favored Popery or Arminianism, all who supported the king in the collecting of tunnage and poundage without the consent of parlia- ment, or even those who paid the illegal imposts, to be capital enemies to the kingdom and the Commonwealth. When the Speaker refused to put the resolutions, Holies promptly put them for him, and the House carried them by tumultuous shouts of applause. Then the House adjourned.

The Eliot resolutions were a declaration of war; the House liad declared its purpose to hold those who supported the crown PunUhment l^^i^ceforth as traitors to the kingdom and the Com- %^^and i^onwealth. The king acted just as Eliot and his Valentine, followers no doubt knew that he would act; he dis- solved parliament on March 10, and arrested the men who had been prominent in the scenes of March 2. Of ten men who were arrested all but three shortly submitted to the king and were released. Eliot after three years' confinement succumbed to the damp walls of the Tower, dying there of consumption in 1632, but stout of heart and unconquered to the last. Valentine and Strode were not released until just before the assembling of the •'Short Parliament" in 1640.

Eleven years of arbitrary tyranny were now to pass before Charles again summoned a parliament. The period is known as the first era of Stuart despotism. Its history is the record on the part of the king of a desperate struggle to secure financial independence with little heed to the spirit of English laws. It was useless for the king to think of taking any further part in the great war which was still desolating the continent, and he made the best terms he could with his enemies, coming to terms first with France in 1629 and with Spain in 1630. He did not abandon the hope of saving the Palatinate for Frederick, however, and occasionally attempted negotiations with that end in view;

880 SBA 07 ARBITBARY GOYERNHEKT [gbakmI

but his promises or his threats were alike despised by men who had no respect for a prince who had neither soldiers to fight nor money with which to equip them.

Had Charles been a thrifty monarch like Henry VIL, the task to which he now set himself would have been difficult enough. Bat he was not thrifty; as Henrietta Maria ^id of raiHng him he was always ^'a poor housekeeper/' and the treasnrer, Lord Weston, was soon at his wits' end to secure money to defray the most ordinary expenses of government. The king's officers continued to collect tunnage and poundage, in spite of the threatening remonstrance of the last parliament. The duty deriyed from tunnage and poundage alone, however, was far from sufficient to meet the needs of the court, and in 1630 the king resorted to the old expedient of Distraint of Knighthood, compelling all men of f ullage holding lands to the value of £40 a year to receive knighthood or pay a fine.

In 1633 the king's ministers hit upon a still more ingenious but offensive device for filling the royal coffers. They established special forest courts and called upon all holders of tioes and land, that had once been forest land, to prove their titles. In 1632^ the king had also returned to the granting of monopolies, although he kept within the letter of the law of 1624 which had forbidden such grants to individuals, by creating corporations to enjoy the privileges of the royal grant. Corporations began to blossom without number; individuals by organizing into a company and making a handsome donative to the royal treasury, might secure the sole right of selling such articles as coal, brick, soap, beer, wine, starch, or any one of a score or more of the common objects of daily consumption.

The king's ministers, in the meanwhile, were ransacking the records for other precedents which could be turned to the enrich- ment of the treasury without a technical violation of ^'SiJ"^'^^ the law. In 1634 William Noy, the attorney general, SS^'i^iT" poi»ited out to Charles that the laws of England imposed upon the coast towns the duty of furnishing ships for the navy in times of danger. Some recent piracies on the coast were thought to be of sufficient importance to supply

1684-1686] SHIP-MONEY 33l

the conditions which justified a resort to this ancient custom, and on October 20, 1634, Charles issued the first of the series of famous writs. By this writ tbe magistrates of London and other port towns were ordered to proyide a certain number of ships of war to be ready at Portsmouth on the first of the following March, and empowered to assess the inhabitants for the purpose of building, equipping, and maintaining the ships and their crews for six months. The tonnage and equipment were also specified, but the ships ordered were so large that most of the towns could not build them in their own yards, and they were therefore compelled to give the money instead.

The writ of October, 1634, had been limited to the coast towns; but the next year, August 4, Charles repeated the experiment and upon a much larger scale, sending the writ to every thS-dwriu^ county of England and Wales, thus virtually demand- ing money since the towns of the interior could not be expected to build ships themselves. The king justified the extension of the writ by the plea that, since the whole country was to be benefited by strengthening the navy, the whole country ought to bear the burden. It took no clear head to see the purport of this levy of ship-money. The tax was not large; yet a small tax could establish a precedent, and if once fixed, there was nothing to prevent the king from freeing the crown forever from parlia- mentary control. The issue of a new book of rates, which added £10,000 to the royal income, also called attention to the progress which the king was making in securing an independent royal rey- enue, and when, October 9, 1636, a third levy of ship-money was ordered, it could no longer be doubted that the king proposed nothing less than to establish in this form a permanent annual tax. Some of the bolder spirits determined to fight the matter out in the courts, and refused to pay the tax until the king should sue for it. Among these was John Hampden, a young den^ca^r^ Buckinghamshire squire. The tax for which he wan held, levied upon some lands in Stoke Mandevilk. amounted only to the pitiful sum of twenty shillings, but he determined not to pay it, until the Court of Exchequer had heard his case. An earlier opinion of the judges, as well as their well

332 EBA OF ARBITBARY GOYERNHElTr [ciublvL

known subserviency to the king, did not afford the people much hope of a fair hearing. What was their surprise and joy, there* fore, when it was learned that five of the twelve judges had objected to the writs. Yet technically the victory was with the king and he insisted that all arrears must be paid at once. Tyranny could go no farther; parliamentary government in England apparently was at an end; Englishmen were to be governed henceforth without any "king-yoking policy."

Fortunately, however, there was another cause, as dear to the hearts of the great mass of the English people as their political Lavd^arch- liberties, in which they saw what they wanted even carSSr^rv, °^^^® clearly and definitely, and that was their ^«**- Pnritanism. Charles had already identified himself

with Laud's scheme of reform in his London diocese, but in 1633 he was rash enough to make him archbishop of Canterbary. Laud at once determined to carry out his ideas of ecclesiastical reform in the larger sphere in which this elevation now gave him a free hand. He raised his friends to the high places of the church, and then with the support of the Court of High Com- mission began to rule the Puritan clergy with a rod of iron. In 1634 he reissued James's ** Declaration of Sports," which per- mitted good church people to engage in archery and dancing on Sunday afternoon; a measure which deeply offended the entire Puritan community by publicly authorizing the desecration of their one holy day. He also revived the old custom of "metro- politan visitations," traveling over his archiepiscopal see, prying into the practices of each church, large or small, sending obstinate clergymen before the Court of High Commission, and setting things to rights according to "the pitch of reformation which was fioating in his own brain."

During these years of unchecked tyranny, the Star Chamber also contributed its share to the disquiet and irritation of the TyranniM Puritan community. In 1628 Dr. Leigh ton, a Scotch 1/ Stor*^*^ physician who had settled in London, had got up a thamber. petition for the abolition of Episcopacy, which he presented to parliament. The next year he published his petition, which he had elaborated into a book, attacking both the king and

1630-1637] LAUD AND THE PRESS 333

the bishops, and laying to their charge all the sins of the English people. In 1630 the vigorous author was sentenced by the Star Chamber to be flogged, have his nose slit, one ear cut off, and his face branded. Another victim of Star Chamber justice was William Prynne, who in 1633 published a venomous attack upon the stage, which the Puritans had already marked as pernicious and immoral. Unfortunately for Prynne the king and his court were great playgoers and the queen had herself taken part in a private mask. The result was that the Star Chamber took the matter up, and Prynne was expelled from the bar, deprived of his university degree, set in the pillory, and shorn of his ears. In

1637 Prynne again fell into the hands of the Star cew<w8/iip of Chamber. Laud with his other mischievous activities

had attempted a vigorous censorship of the press. But secret presses continued to thrive; frequently also books were sent to Holland for printing; and in spite of Laud's vigilance, a vigorous and stirring literature, representing the views which he was struggling to repress, was steadily gaining circulation among the people. Among the leaders in this under- ground warfare were the irrepressible Prynne, Henry Burton, a clergyman of London, and Dr. Bastwick, a physician of Colchester. The three men were seized and received the sentence of the court. Public feeling was ronsed to the boiling point. An immense crowd cheered the]**three renowned soldiers of Jesas Christ" and strewed flowers in their way as they passed to the pillory. Charles was finally compelled to send them off to the Channel Islands in order to get them out of all touch with their sym- pathizers.

In the other domains which recognized the Stuarts as sovereigns, the king's policy of having his own way in spite of

the prejudices or preferences of the people, as in in Ireland, England, was succeeding wherever physical force, or

the brutality of the courts, could overawe the people, and with the same results. In 1632 Wentworth had been appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland and the next year entered upon the administration of his duties in that long-abused land. The last deputy, Falkland, had arranged with Charles in return

884 ERA OF ARBITBABY OOYERNMEKT [

for certain concessions, to secure him a grant of £4,000 a year in order to meet the expenses of the Irish army. By these con- cessions, ^^ Graces" as they were called, Charles agreed to allow the Irish to take an oath of allegiance instead of the oath of supremacy; he agreed to abolish the fine for not attending church and to accept a title to land of sixty years' standing as final even against the crown. When Wentworth took up his duties, how- ever, the subsidy had not yet been passed upon by the Irish parliament; hence the question of the Graces was still pending.

The new deputy was a thorough-going man of affairs and prided himself on systematic methods in which there was no play wmtworth ^^^ sentiment, no favor for the rich, no compassion ^^J}^f,f for the powerful. This system he called ''Thorough." "Thorough" It soon became evident, however, that he was guided, not by any sense of justice, but merely by reasons of policy. He persuaded the Irish parliament to vote a large subsidy to the crown, and then announced that the Graces, to which the king had given his word, should be submitted without the clause designed to protect and assure the Irish landowners. His real purpose appeared later, when he began to make plans for a plantation of Connaught, similar to that of Ulster. Great indignation and unrest followed ; no landowner could feel sure of his title, when the king's word could be so lightly set aside by his minister. Wentworth was in the midst of these schemes for spoiling the landlords of Connaught, when Charles and Laud decided that they needed him and his system of Thorough at home.

In the meanwhile the principles of Charles and Laud were working out results in a distant quarter of the world in ways The ttystcm ^^*^ ^^^^ little thought of . Far back in Henry VII. 's ai^^£awiin ^eign England had thought to get her share from the coumiea, discovery in the new world by fitting out the Cabots and sending them off into the western seas. They brought back a better knowledge of the great northern continent, but in the midst of the stirring scenes of the Tudor reigns, Englishmen had little thought of the new world, save as a place to hunt for gold mines or Spanish treasure fleets. Nevertheless the discoveries of

1607-1629] THE COLONIES 335

the Cabots served as a foundation upon which to base claims, when in the later years of Elizabeth men like Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Raleigh pointed out the advantages of securing in the new world colonies, or trading stations, similar to those which European nations had long maintained in the Orient, as the basis

of their oriental trade. It was not, however, until the Semmts^ year 1607 in the settlement of Jamestown, ihat these

efforts attained any success. Almost at the same time another colony was settled in the Barbadoes. Great difficulty was found in persuading Englishmen to leave their native land and face the trials and dangers of the wilderness simply upon the prospect of gain ; nor was it until the more powerful motive of religion and love of liberty came to the help of the trading companies that their early plantations began really to flourish. The great ^^ ^^^^ ^^® famous little band of Brownists, or Sepa- mitiratum. ratists, who for some years had been living in exile in Holland, encouraged by the patronage of the London Company, determined to try their fortunes in the new world. They landed at a site which John Smith had already named New Plymouth from the home of the great western company. The coast was bleak and unpromising, and the Kew England winter, which had already begun, gave them but a surly welcome. From the first their life was a hand to hand struggle with death. Few re- cruits joined them, for the life of exile had as yet little attrac- tion for the sturdy English yeoman. After 1629, however, the alarming strides which the despotism of church and state were making at home, the revelation of the weakness of parliament ill the presence of a wilful monarch, led many to despair of ever securing in England the rights which the laws had promised them. A new tide, therefore, from the great Puritan class very soon set in towards the shore of Massachusetts Bay, and the emigrants were soon numbered by the thousands.

Laud was not pleased to see Englishmen thus escaping from under the discipline of his Court of High Commission and attempted to keep avowed nonconformists at home by persuading the council to forbid noblemen or gentry to leave the kingdom without the royal license and by compelling people of lower rank

836 EBA 07 ABBITBABY GOYEBKMENT [chabuiI.

to present a certificate of conformity. This, however, did not check the flight of nonconformists, who continued to flock to the AUempUi of ^®^ wofld by the thousands, until the outbreak of the ehe^ani- ^^^^ ^*^® promised them better things at home. It ffrotiofi. hag been estimated that at the outbreak of the Amer- ican Beyolution seventy-flye percent of the people of English blood of the nofthem colonies were descendants of the men and women who had been driven out of England by the tyranny of Charles and his little archbishop.

Laud^s attention, however, was soon diverted to Scotland where there was far more to attract his mischievous itchiDg for reform

than in the humble colonies. In Scotland the nobles forms in and people, it will be remembered, had combined for

the overthrow of the ancient church. They had had no Henry VIII. or Elizabeth to restrain their excesses, and it was not long before the nobles and the Protestant clergy were quarrel- ing over the division of the spoil. After a bitter struggle of over twenty years, the people finally got rid of the bishops who had been set up by the nobles, and succeeded in introducing Presbyte- rianism, pure and simple. James, however, had attempted to interfere, and by the help of the nobles, the rule of the Presbyterian clergy had been overthrown, the bishops brought back and in the Articles of Perth, certain forms peculiar to the EngL'sh service introduced. Here, however, James had been shrewd enough to stop, and here matters had rested, until Laud took the hard- headed Scotsmen in hand to mould them to his ideas of uniformity. In October 1625, Charles had issued an Act of Revocation, by

which the church property in the hands of the nobles

The A.ct at s: ^ j

Revocation, was to be tumcd over to the crown. The act, although modified by a subsequent offer of compensation, at once alienated the nobles, and left the king without the support of the only party which had been willing to help him. He now attempted to force the Prayer-book upon the ministers and increase the power of the bishops. The cry of "popery" was raised, and all classes united with the ministers in opposing the innova- tions. In 1G38 the famous "National Covenant" was adopted, in which the people bound themselves to resist all changes in religion

1688,1639] THE FIRST BISHOPS* WAB 337

'Ho the utmost of the power that God had put m their hands." The document was signed amidst great enthusiasm; *'such as refused were accounted no better than papists."

Charles saw that he must yield, or lose Scotland. He was

without money; his army was small and poorly equipped; and in

the condition of the Endish temper, which was as

The A.88Cfn-

My at Gias' threatening as the temper of the Scots, he knew he could not depend upon England in case of war. He therefore allowed his representative, James Hamilton, to with- draw the Prayer-book, to the great joy of the Scots. In Novem- ber 1638, Hamilton summoned at Glasgow a General Assembly, the highest ecclesiastical body of the Scottish church. The laity predominated, and when their spirit warned Hamilton that nothing but continued opposition was to be expected, he attempted to dissolve them. They in turn denied his right, as a representative of the state, to interfere in spiritual matters, and proceeded to abolish the Episcopacy. No one believed that Charles would submit, and the Scots prepared to fight for their cause.

In the summer Charles gathered an army of twenty thousand pressed men, taken from the northern counties, and advanced to Berwick. The Scots faced them at Dunse Law twelve BUhops* miles away, inferior in numbers but superior in training and morale, and everything else that goes to make up an efficient army. Many, like their leader Alexander Leslie, had already periled their lives in the Protestant cause in Germany, and were not afraid of powder. Charles for once took counsel with discretion, and on the 18th of June, in the Treaty of Ber- wick, agreed to refer the grievances of the Scots to a free parlia- ment and assembly. When the new assembly came together, however, it simply reenacted the acts of the Assembly of Glasgow ; the parliament, from which the bishops were excluded, was about to confirm these acts, when Charles pronounced it adjourned. The angry Scots, in reply, denied the right of the king to adjourn parliament without its consent, charged Charles with trickery and deceit, and prepared again for war.

It was at this moment that Charles, at Laud's suggestioni

338 ERA OF ABBITBABY GOVEBKHENT [OiublmL

snmmoned Wentworth from Ireland to a place in the conncil. From the first the influence of the minister with the king silenced

all other voices. He saw that Charles must force Zmewunca, ^^® Scots to submit, but that to do this he must have

the help of the nation. A Scottish war might again unite parties and lead the obdurate parliament to relent and open its purse strings. But conciliation was necessary; and as a first step Valentine and Strode were released from the Tower after eleven years of imprisonment. The effect, however, was largely lost by the appointment to the Great Seal, of Finch, the Speaker of the parliament of 1629, the very man whom Valentine and Holies had held in the chair while Eliot offered his famous resolutions, and who had since made himself specially obnoxious by an unqualified support of ship-money. Wentworth also was made earl of Strafford.

The fourth parliament of Charles met on the 13th of April, 1640. Many changes had taken place since the last parliament

came together. Eliot had died in prison ; Coke and Parliament,'* othcrs Were also dead, and Wentworth had gone over

to the enemy. But John Hampden was there, the hero of the ship-money fight, and John Pym also was there, now sixty years of age, a veteran in parliamentary warfare, who had sat in every parliament since 1621. He had once held a position in the Exchequer; he had also a strong personal influence among the Puritan nobility, and was thus, both by his experience in handling state affairs, and his friendships, the most considerable personage among the Puritan commoners. The friends of the king attempted to make much of the throat of a Scottish invasion and of war with France, since it was known that the Covenanters had, quite in the old way, appealed to the traditional foe of England for help. They made no effort to deny the existence of grievances, but asked first for the voting of supplies, the passing of a tunnage and poundage bill, in order that when the country had placed itself on a strong footing against foreign enemies, parliament might at leisure consider domestic grievances. But Pym, seconded by Hampden, came at once to the point at issue and insisted that the question of grievances be settled first before

1640] THE SECOND BISHOPS' WAB 339

a subsidy should be voted. Charles appealed to the LGrOS, and they voted that the subsidies ought to oome first; but the Commons held to the position taken by Pym. Thus April passed in resultless wrangling. Charles became B&iisfied that he could get nothing from his parliament, ^ad on May 5 decided upon a dissolution at the very moment i^hen the Commons were about to pass a petition, virtually expressing their sympathy with the Scots, and calling upon th/:, king to make terms with them. The fourth parliameut of Charles, known in parliamentary history as the ** Short Parliament," had sat just three weeks.

Charles was now left to face the Scots alone; the calling of a parliament had only helped to stir up English popular feeling and

given strength and body to the opposition. Went- nuihopH' worth would hear of no further concession; he advised

the king, therefore, to fight, to take the money which parliament had denied him, for, since the nation's life was at stake, he was "absolved from all rules of government.*' He also offered Charles the Irish army "to reduce this kingdom"; — fatal words which were not forgotten. Charles hesitated to bring over the Irish, but he began to press troops for a second Bishops' War. He called on tlie people of London for a loan, but they refused it. He applied to the courts of Denmark, Holland, Spain, and even the pope, for aid, but to little purpose. The Scots were eager for the fray and crossing the Tweed advanced to the Tyne, where they easily scattered the half-hearted troops of the king, who had been stationed at Newburn to hold the passage of the river.

It was clear enough to most men that the scheme of arbitrary government had now run its course. Yet both Charles and his

council shrank from again confronting a parliament. ThciaAtm(W' In their dilemma they fell back upon the ancient umhcr24-^' expedient of summoning a magnum concilium instead, 0€ti>b€r2ti, in the hope of securing from the nobles the support

which they could not expect from the representatives of the people. Charles was at York, whither he had gone to support by his presence the men who were superintending the northern levies^ and here the fi^reat council was to meet him on

840 THE CIVIL WAB [cilueusL

the 24th of September. Bnt before the day came Charles himself had become satisfied that he could not avoid summoning a parliament, and at the opening session of the council announced the issue of writs for November 3. The peers nevertheless remained in session until October 28, and during that time performed a real service for the king. They raised in London upon their own security a loan of £50,000. They also bore no small part in securing the Truce of Eipon, by which the Scots were to hold Korthumberland and Durham, until a definite peace could be concluded by the advice of an English parliament. Charles, also, was to allow them £850 a day to meet their expenses ; the limit was fixed at two months.

All parties were thus waiting for the assembling of Charles's fifth parliament. The presence of the Scottish army was a guarantee that its demands would be heard. The tyranny of Charles I. was at an end.

CHAPTER III

THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE CIVIL WAB

CHARLES I., IMf-im

The fifth and last parliament of Charles I., destined to be famous among English parliaments as the '^Long Parliament,"

assembled on the 3d of November, 1640. Never had a PariiameSt'* House been gathered so overwhelmingly in sympathy

with the popular cause. The great merchant class, proverbially conservative and cautious where business interests are concerned, was conspicuous for its meager representation. But country gentlemen and lawyers, university men the most of them, proverbially radical and uncompromising when once aroused, were there in great numbers.

There was a prevailing belief among all parties that Went- worth, now earl of Strafford, and Archbishop Laud had conspired to overthrow parliamentary government and restore Catholicism. So common was the belief that neither man could count on the

1640] ATTAINDER OF STRAFFORD 341

support of any party, and with remarkable unanimity the House, as the first step towards putting the government upon a work- Thc attack ^^S footing, appointed a commission to inquire into /^d<^'^- tlie conduct of the two ministers. For Strafford ^^^'^^ the case wore a serious aspect. The popular lead-

ers knew his ability and his energy ; they feared him and were determined on his destruction. Yet Charles implored Strafford to leave the army and come to London, assuring him on his word that he "should not suffer in his person, honor, or for- tune." Strafford was the last man to flinch before such a call, and deliberately entering the death-trap, put himself at the head of the council as ''thorough" and dauntless as ever. Still he saw the danger, knew that the impeachment was coming, and pro- |X)sed to Charles to make the treasonable correspondence of the popular leaders with the Scots, the basis of a counter impeach- ment. Pym, however, was too prompt for the wavering monarch and struck first. On November 11, on the basis of a vague charge of treason, prepared by the Ilouse, Strafford was arrested by order of the Lords and committed to the Tower. On December 18, Laud also, on motion of the same indefatigable Pym, was impeached of high treason, and the Lords as promptly sent him to the Tower. The trial of Strafford began in March, but it was soon evident that the charge of treason could not be established. The Commons, however, were determined to have the life

of^strl^i/ni.^ ^^ the hated minister, and when it became evident

that the prosecution was breaking down for lack of

evidence, they resorted to a bill of attainder which passed by a

vote of 204 to 59. The Lords hesitated, but Pym had unearthed

a plot to which the queen, if not Charles himself, was

piift.^""^ privy, for bringing the northern army to London,

rescuing Strafford, and overawing the Commons.

There were also rumors of the approach of a French force by

sea, which was to meet the queen at Portsmouth and unite with

the king's troops. Excitement in London ran high; the trained

bands were called out; and a petition calling for the death of

Strafford was signed by twenty thousand persons. The Lords

yielded to the excitement and passed the bill. Only the kind's

842 THE CIVIL WAR [chai

signature now remained between the faithfal minister and a traitor's death. Charles for a moment hesitated, and then, seeking to save his self-respect by the pitiful plea that he feared for the safety of his wife and children and his kingdom, gave way. Strafford was beheaded on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641. Laud was retained in the Tower until 1645 when he too was taken out and executed, apparently as a simple act of vengeance.

In the six months which had elapsed since the arrest of Strafford, several notable acts had passed the Commons. Early in the session they had recalled Prynne and his fellow oftheLiynQ suffcrers who had tasted the justice of the Star Chamber, and they now proposed to make such exercises of royal power impossible in the future by abolishing the whole list of special courts, sweeping away in a single act the Star Chamber, the Council of the North, the Council of Wales, the Council of Lancaster, and the Council of Chester, and restoring thereby one-third of the people of England to the jurisdiction of the common law courts. The same day, July 5, 1641, Elizabeth's Court of High Commission was also abolished. Lest ministers should be encouraged in lawlessness by the absolute control which the king held over the times for the calling of a parliament, it was decreed that no more than three years should henceforth elapse between parliaments, and that when assembled, a parlia- ment must sit for at least fifty days; arrangements, moreover, were made for the holding of elections independently of the crown, should the king refuse to issue the proper summons. Other abuses, also, were swept away. Ship-money was declared illegal and the decision against Hampden rovorsod. Distraint of Knighthood was abolished and the forest commission condemned. The "Impositions" and the unauthorized levy of tuunage and poundage suffered the same fate, and the unhappy collectors were made responsible for the moneys which they had taken from citizens in the name of the state, — a most wholesome lesson to law-breaking servants of the crown in the future. Parliament then sought to strengthen the law courts by decreeing that the judges should hold office during good behavior and not be liable to removal at the king's pleasure.

1641] BEYOLUTIONABY DRIFT OF PABLIAHEKT 343

Thus far the efforts of the Long Parliament had not been revolutionary. They had simply attacked the prerogatives which Revolution' ^^^® Stuarts had derived from precedents left by the mu!m*^ Tudors and struck them off one by one, until they had PariiamcnL shattered the whole Tudor structure and leveled it with the dust. But the witless intrigue of the queen in the Army Plot, which had turned all London upside down, had deeply stirred parliament ; under the intense excitement, its work began to assume a new character, and parliament itself began to change from a body of dignified and sober reformers into a gathering of feverish revolutionists. The precipitation of the attainder of Strafford was the first symptom of this change. More significant still, on the day when Charles put his name to the bill of attainder, he was also compelled to sign another bill which decreed that the existing parliament should not be dissolved with- out its own consent. The revolutionary purport of this measure at the time was perhaps not observed; the promoters thought only of preventing the king from carrying out his part of the Army Plot. Yet parliament had really taken from the king the constitutional right of appeal to the nation, and left him hence- forth no means of getting rid of a refractory parliament other than civil war.

For the moment, however, no one saw the shadow. The nation was overwhelmingly with the parliament; and parliament

had acted thus far virtually as a unit. The parliament ^^«^"wo/ ^as satisfied with its work, confident in its strength,

and had no wish to interfere with the king further. It voted tunnage and poundage, and arranged for a poll tax, grad- uated from £100 to 6d. In August the claims of the Scots were also satisfied, their army sent home, and the English army disbanded. The political questions apparently were now settled; the king was still without a party, and probably would have remained so,

had not the unwise zeal of some radical Puritans thrust tiie party of the religious question to the front and given it a new re orm. prominence by a proposal to abolish Episcopacy altogether. The unanimity which had prevailed heretofore was at once threatened. Falkland, Digby, Hyde, and Selden, drew off

844 THE CIVIL WAB [ommiL

from their old companions and made so brave a fight, that the bill, known as the '^Koot and Branch Bill,'' had not reached its final stages when the session closed in September.

Outside of parliament also the waves of controversy were beating high. The people wore fiooded with tracts for and against the episcopal forms. Bishop Hall of Exeter ^ie tract pablished a "Humble Remonstrance" addressed to parliament, and five Puritan clergymen answered him in a tract remarkable, not so much for its contents, as for the curious pseudonym, "Smectymnuus," which they attached, made up of their several initials. Prominent among those who took part in this tract war, was John Milton, who in ponderous but sonorous prose denounced the bishops and made Episcopacy responsible for all the failures of the Beformation. The result of this unfortunate strife was to divide the ranks of the reformers and give ecclesiastical questions a prominence over the questions of constitutional reform, which they did not deserve.

Charles, in the meanwhile, had gone to Scotland in the hope of securing the support of his Scottish subjects, by granting the Charles in demands which he had before resisted to the point of T%^*^ink- ^*^* ^^^ ^^ court was still the center of intrigue, dent,** 1641, and an unfortunate affair, known as the "Incident," a plan, formed like the Army Plot by some hot-headed courtiers, for securing and possibly destroying the popular leaders in the late troubles in the northern kingdom, completely defeated the purpose of the king. Yet he would not give up the idea of getting aid from Scotland and made Leslie, the leader of the Scots in the Bishops' Wars, earl of Leven; others he honored in similar ways. He was not unaware, also, of the significance of the quarrel of his enemies at home over the church question, and sought to add fuel to the fiame by sending a declaration to the English Lords, "that he was resolved, by the grace of God, to die in the maintenance of the discipline and doctrine of the Church of England, as established by Elizabeth."

Parliament now began to realize the mistake of raising the religious question. Since the death of Strafford, Charles had done little to regain confidence; his actions in Scotland were

1641] THE OBAKD BEMONSTBANOB 846

regarded with positive suspicion. The Root and Branch Bill was

therefore abandoned for the present, and arrangements were made

for storing the arms of the northern army at Hull and

Root and f ,-, m » t •» a .j- i

Branch BUI guarding the Tower of London. A quieting appeal, ' also, was issued to the people, asking them to withhold action and wait for parliament to mature its plans for the reformation of the church. A sort of committee of safety was appointed with Pym at the head, to remain in London and keep watch of the drift of affairs. Then, on September 9, parliament adjourned until October 20.

When parliament met again, it had hardly begun the business of the session when most disquieting news reached it from Ireland. The successors of Strafford had pushed forward his '^^^^^ scheme of colonizing Connaught and were in full sympathy with the plan of crushing the Catholics. But Charles had been intriguing with the Catholic lords, and, by conceding all that the Irish parliament demanded, was seeking here, as in Scotland, to get support for an armed interference in England. As a result of this encouragement, the parliament and people of Ireland soon passed beyond the control of the authorized deputies of the king, and on October 23, the whole north broke out in revolt.

This was the news which reached the English parliament soon after the opening of the new session, yet it knew not how to act. The Grand ^^ ^^^ afraid to entrust the king with an army, lest Retmm^trance, ]^q should make commou cause with the Irish for the ^^^' suppression of the liberties of England. It was

decided, therefore, to ask the Scots to send a force equal to what might be raised in England in order to counterbalance the army which parliament was compelled to raise but which it feared would pass into the king's hands. To Pym, Hampden, and other radical leaders, moreover, with the Irish revolt confronting them, with disquieting rumors of the king's perfidy coming from Scotland, and the increasing strength of the party of reaction in the Houses, it seemed necessary, if what had been won was to be saved, not to allow the king to obscure, or the nation to forget, the real ground upon which the quarrel had been begun. In November 1641, therefore, they brought before the House ^

846 THE GIYIL WAR [obaumL

monster document of two hundred and six clauses, known as the Grand Remonstrance,

^ This document was designed primarily as an appeal to the nation. It was in reality a vigorous arraignment of the king and defense of the parliament, accusing the king's councillors and the bishops of deliberately attempting to overthrow the laws of the kingdom and restore the papacy. It proposed, moreover, for the f ature, that the royal councillors should be named in accordance with the wishes of parUament; and that a convention or assembly of Protestant divines, both English and foreign, be called together "to consider all things necessary for the peace and good govern- ment of the churches." The results of the work of the ecclesias- tical assembly were to be confirmed by parliament and thus made the law of the land.

Such a measure, proposed at such a time, could have but one result; it at once completed the division in the ranks of the parliamentary party which had been threatened by the parliament' agitation over the Boot and Branch Bill of the preced- ing session. Beconciliation was henceforth impossible. The new Episcopal party gathered its strength for the issue, and the struggle began. On the 22d of November the battle opened at noon and raged until the falling shadows of a bleak November day compelled the ushers to bring in candles ; afternoon passed into evening; still the debate thundered on. So intense was the excitement, that at times twenty members were on their feet at once, shouting and waving hats and swords like madmen. At midnight the Remonstrance was carried by a majority of eleven votes in a house of 307 members.

Two days later the king returned to London. The reaction had been gaining ground rapidly. The wealthier citizens of London were restless under the heavy taxation which ^^^*'* parliament had recently imposed upon them, and Episcopalians everywhere saw a threat of persecution in the programme laid down by the Grand Remonstrance. On the 1st of December the lengthy document was presented to the king, and on the 23d he returned an answer in which he acknowledged 22othing and granted nothing.

1641, 1642] THB FIYB HBMBBB8 347

The Grand Bemonstrance had now drawn the lines sharply in the House. The majority of the Eoot and Branch reformers was Charles imes Small, but it was determined and could be depended imtSs^^^ on. Charles, however, still controlled the Lords by cember, is4L means of the bishops, whose solid vote would always give him a working majority with which to defeat any hostile measure which might pass the House. But in the presence of the boisterous mobs which daily surged about the Parliament House, blocking the ways and preventing egress or ingress, the courage of the men of peace failed them, and, pleading that their lives were in danger, they refused longer to attend the sittings of parliament. On the 20th of December twelve bishops, headed by Williams, who had recently been made archbishop of York, formally protested against the legality of all proceedings under- taken during their absence. To their surprise their protest was answered by an impeachment; the Lords sustained the impeach- ment and the seats were vacated. With Williams and his fellow bishops in the Tower, the Upper House passed permanently under the control of the opposition.

The king was now desperate; he could no longer dissolve parliament at will ; the withdrawal of the bishops had deprived y^ ..^^,^ him of the last means of checking the Commons in a jant^i^;" constitutional manner. To add to his disquiet, he

1642, learned that the Commons were considering a plan for impeaching the queen for treason. Her danger was real ; no one knew how many of the facts connected with her intrigue with the pope, with the leaders in the Army Plot or with the Irish rebels, were in the hands of Pym and Hampden. Urged at last by the imminence of the crisis, Charles determined to save the queen by striking first, and on the 3d of January, 1642, impeached Lord Kimbolton and five members of the House, Pym, Hampden, Holies, Haselrig, and Strode, "for having traitorously invited a foreign power (the Scots) to invade England." The right of the king to impeach a member of the House was by no means clear, and the Commons paid no attention to the demand of the king for the delivery of the five members. The morning passed and nothing was done; then, about three in the afternoon, after the

348 THE CIVIL WAB [cbabumI.

king had given every opportunity for the five marked men to get out of his way, he led a noisy throng of armed men through the streets to the House and demanded the five members. Advancing to the Speaker's chair, he turned and looked about the room. He wa3 not a coward. He had left his escort without and he stood there alone facing the Commons. ''Where are they?'' he asked Speaker Lenthall. But Lenthall, assuming the position of respect in the presence of majesty which convention prescribed, firmly but respectfully refused to use "eye or tongue," save as the House should direct him. Again Charles looked the silent House in the face and then retired, baffled, beaten. The House rose in tumult and followed the five members into the city, where the sympathy of the people promised them protection. Charles, however, was for once overawed ; and not knowing what the Commons might do in their desperation, or where they might attempt .to strike next, on the 10th of January he retired to Hampton Court, abandoning his capital and the resources of the state to the parliament. On the 11th, the Commons returned in triumph to Westminster.

War was now certain unless the king should yield at all points. The radical majority of the parliament had triumphed,

and proceeded at once to secure its triumph by ^^MUUia assuming control of the military resources of the

government. It first sent a bill to the king, which '* disabled all persons in holy orders from exercising any temporal jurisdiction or authority." Charles, possibly hoping that this would quiet the waters, consented; thus agreeing to the per- manent exclusion of the bishops from the Lords. But the House was not satisfied, and next sent him a Militia Bill, which called upon him to surrender to parliament the entire control of the militia, the only armed force in the kingdom, by allowing parlia- ment to appoint its officers. The king, however, would go no further. ''No, not for an hour!" was his angry answer. The House then determined to abandon the form of a bill and push through the measure as an ordinance of parliament, that is to enforce it without the king's consent.

In April the king attempted to get possession of the great

1642] THE YORK PBOPOSITIOKS 349

arsenal at Hull, but Hotham, the parliamentary governor, refused him admission. In Jnly parliament formally appointed a Com- mittee of Public Safety, levied ten thousand men for immediate service, and appointed Essex commander-in-chief. On the 11th the House declared Charles responsible for beginning war; and on the 18th of August they declared those who supported the king to be traitors. This of course was revolution, pure and simple, and on the king's part there could be only one reply. He had already sent his wife and children out of the kingdom, and on August 22, he raised the royal standard at Nottingham. It was the sign that civil war had began.

The war which was now to desolate England for ten years is known in English History as the '* Great Rebellion'* or the "Great Civil War." Sometimes, taken with the stirring events of the epoch which precedes and the epoch which follows, it is called the ** Puritan Revolution." The name is not inapt, for a religious purpose was quite as prominent in the minds of the contending parties as a political purpose.

The political issue, however, though confused in the minds of most with the religious issue, was by no means lost sight of. Here

The political *^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ "^ parliament had left no middle roffcprc^ ground for any subject of the king. On the 2d of osuitms. June, they had sent to Charles at York nineteen prop- ositions, in which they demanded that they be allowed to name the king's council, his officers of state, his lieutenants of fortresses, and his judges ; that he confirm the Militia Ordinance and permit them to reform the church in accordance with their ideas ; that is, parliament virtually asked the king to surrender what was left of royal authority, leaving him little more than the name and dignity of king. Now there were many men, especially among the nobility, who, while they had no sympathy with the methods of Laud or the Court of Star Chamber, and had voted steadily with the majority for the long list of abolitions in the first session of the Long Parliament, while they had little belief in Charles personally and had even voted for the attainder of Wentworth, yet loved the kingship with a great and patriotic love, as the symbol of the unity and strength of the nation, and with no

850 THE CIVIL WAB [

feigned alarm, now beheld the Puritan leaders bent apparently upon humiliating the crown to the dust. Charles had made con- cessions, and these* men, among whom were Hyde and Falkland, belieyed that he had gone far enough. They had made a braye fight against the Iloot and Branch Bill, and again, against the Grand Eemonstrance, and they now knew that the time for debate had passed. When, therefore, Charles raised his standard in August, these men, including a full majority of the Lords, were ranged at his side.

The social lines which divided the two camps were by no means so clearly drawn. The ruflBers, the thorough-going

courtiers, soldiers of fortune many of them, and like ^IJ^^***** the king's nephews. Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice,

of noble blood, the gay worldlings of the court who hated Puritanism and despised Puritans by instinct and by train- ing, and who cared not a straw for the principles of religion or liberty, were to be counted for the king. And yet it would be an error to represent the struggle as a war of classes. There was no distinct appeal to rival social elements as in the later French Eevolution ; although the majority of the nobility and the gentry were with the king, these classes were also well represented on the other side ; their representatives furnished the generals and states- men, who were to conduct the counsels of the parliamentary cause to a triumphant issue.

Geographically, also, the lines were nowhere distinctly drawn. London was the stronghold of the Puritans, and York of the king.

The south and east were overwhelmingly for the parlia- u!^Un^ ment. The north and west, including Wales, were for

the king. And yet during the war, there was more or less fighting and bloodshed in almost every county in the kingdom. All in all, however, geographically the advantage was with the parliament. It controlled the most opulent and populous counties and thus readily found men and money for its armies. It controlled the great seaport populations of the south, and thus not only carried with it the fleet, but also was able to recruit its strength as more ships or seamen were needed. It could also gnsLTd the coasts, prevent the king from getting supplies by sea,

1642] EDOBHILL 351

while it transported its troops at will, and threw them into any seaport town threatened by the land forces of the king.

During all this time there had been more or less pretense of

negotiation, but parliament had little confidence in the result,

and had continued to push forward its preparations

sepumber, for armed resistance. Kimbolton, Hampden, Holies,

1642 • X » »

and others, raised regiments at their own expense. The eastern counties formed an alliance to defend parliament, known as the Eastern Association. London, also, raised eight thousand men and put them in the field. On September 6, the List lingering hope of averting the conflict by negotiation was abandoned, and on the 7th, the royal governor, Goring, surrendered Portsmouth and all its stores to Sir William Waller, a member of the committee of safety. Parliament now had twenty thousand men under its orders and two days after the capture of Ports- mouth, sent Essex forward with the purpose of immediately , attacking the king at Nottingham. ^

The first campaign, however, was destined to be indecisive. Charles retired before Essex to Shrewsbury where his western and southern levies joined him. He then turned about and £doe^1u ^^ began the march upon London. Essex followed him, and on the 23d of October attacked him at Edgehill. Rupert, however, easily drove the Puritan cavalry from the field, and although Essex's infantry held their ground, the next day Charles was able to continue "his march. Six miles from West- minster he found the train-bands of London drawn up across his path. Essex was also at hand, having flanked Charles and taken up a strong position at Kingston. The king feared to chance a battle and after a useless cannonade, retired to Oxford. Here he established his headquarters for the rest of the war, setting up a government and, January 1644, calling together a royalist par- liament, composed mostly of the members of the Long Parliament who had fled from Westminster.

Thus ended the first campaign of the war. It left matters about where they stood on September 7. It had revealed to Charles, however, the determined spirit of the men who defied him; it had also revealed to the Puritan leaders the immense

352 THE CIVIL WAR [

superiority of the royalist horse. During the winter the two armies of Essex and Charles faced each other between Oxford and London, but nothing was done. There were also some vSmt^wS^ futile attempts at negotiation, but no revival of con- fidence, due partly to the continued efforts of Charles to get troops over from Ireland, and also to his efforts to sow dis- senaioQB among the parliameatary leaders.

As the spring came on, fighting began all over England. In the main it went against the parliament. Some petty victories of the early year were more than offset by later losses. potonS^iMj. ^^^ Ralph Hopton secured Cornwall for the king and by overthrowing Waller on the Severn, opened com- munication with Wales. A victory of Newcastle over Fairfax at Adwalton Moor left Hull, already closely besieged, the only parliamentary stronghold in Yorkshire.

Charles now proposed that Newcastle and Hopton bring their victorious armies and join with him for a march on London. But the Cornish men would not leave their homes to ^^. the mercy of the powerfol garrisons of Pljmooth and Exeter; the Yorkshire men were as unwilling to march south until Hull had been reduced. The garrison of Gloucester, also, held the bridge over the lower Severn, and the Welshmen would not march to London until the town had been taken. Charles, therefore, contrary to his better judgment, was compelled to engage in a series of sieges against cities for the most part with an open seaboard. Prince Maurice, Rupert's younger brother, was sent against Plymouth and Exeter; Newcastle pressed the siege of Hull; while the king with his main army marched upon Gloucester. Pym called upon Loudon for an army to relieve Gloucester, and the train-bands promptly responded, giving him an army of fifteen thousand men. Rupert's cavalry failed to check the advance, and on September 8, Essex marched into the city. From the first, the Puritans had felt a deep sense of dependence upon God; they were fighting his battles; "God had called them to do the work." The timely arrival of Essex, therefore, when only three barrels of gunpowder were left in the city, was looked upon as a special interposition of Providence, and

■■ ■ -i 1
	3	\ ENOLATO> J tluflog -^ CIVIL WABS .?*"^ LATEB BTCABT PKEIOD
	J	fe
	^
1 » 1 <3*	\:vJ^^
J *^. u «-«.-^ 1

1648] ^ OLIVER OBOKWELL 353

the grateful citizens inscribed above the gate, ^'A city assanlted by men but saved by God."

It was the crisis of the war. The relief of Oloncester saved Plymouth and Hull, possibly London also; for had Plymouth and 'Fhecrifsia ^"'^ fallen, in all probability London could not have P^**"*- resisted the combined force which the king would

then have concentrated on the lower Thames.

Charles now manoeuvred to prevent the return of Essex to London; the result was the first battle of Newbury, fought on the First hauu ^^^^^ ^' September, twenty-seven miles from Oxford. %epUnSS!er'' The f oot wrcstlcd for hours from hedgerow to hedgerow. 20, 1643. Rupert's cavalry as usual scattered the Puritan horse. When night came, the Puritan infantry still held their ground. They had lost heavily but the king's losses were greater, among them the gallant Lord Falkland. The king withdrew to Oxford, leaving the way open to London.

The triumph at Newbury of the Puritans, or *' Soundheads, " as the/gay '"Cavaliers" of Bupert had begun to call them, was

followed three weeks later by a successful sortie of the Puritansin garrison of Hull, which compelled Newcastle to raise

the siege. On the same day, the 11th of October, Kimbolton, recently become earl of Manchester, won a decisive victory at Winceby. This battle is famous as the first to bring Oliver Cromwell into prominence.

This remarkable man, destined to be the great man of the century, a quiet, unobtrusive squire of Huntingdonshire, had

been sent up to the Long Parliament from Cambridge cromwcu borough, having already appeared at Westminster in

1628 and again in the Short Parliament in 1640. He was not a talker ; and although he had supported Hampden and Pym steadily in the voting, his position as a member of the Long Parliament had not been prominent. But when the time for action came, he went down to his home to take part in the organization of the Eastern Association. Although a cousin of Hampden and a member of parliament, he sought for himself no higher position in the army than that of a captain of cav- alry. He was present at Edgehill and had managed to hold hia

354 THE CIVIL WAB [

troop together, one of the few cavalry companies that did not flee at the first charge of Bnpert's cavaliers. He saw, moreover, the reason of the worthlessness of the Pari tan horse. ''Your troops," he said to Hampden, '^are most of them decayed serving men and tapsters, and sach kind of fellows, and their troops are gentlemen's sons and persons of quality. Do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen that have honor, courage, and resolution in them?" In the months following Edgehill, Cromwell had returned to his home, and there brought together a cavalry regiment of a very different mettle. As he himself expressed it, he proposed to match "men of religion," against the "king's gentlemen of honor." The result was the organization of the famous "Iron- sides," a body of men who possessed the loftiest religious enthu- siasm, tempered and hardened by the severest discipline. At Winceby, Cromwell and his famous regiment led the van of Man- ohester's army. From this time he and his men are conspicuous figures in the war; equal to Kupert's terrible cavaliers "in dash and daring," and more than equal in drill and self- restraint.

In June, Hampden had received his death wound at Chalgrove Field. In December Pym, also, succumbed to the anxieties and bur-

^ dens of his position as the virtual chief of the administra-

ijeague and tion. II is enemies in derision had long since dubbed him "King Pym." As his last service he had secured the formal alliance of the parliament with the Scots in the "Solemn League and Covenant," by which the English bound themselves to support a Scottish army in England, and to reform the Church of England "according to the example of tlie best reformed churches," — a phrase understood by the Scots to mean the Presbyterian Church.

Charles had been seeking allies, and in September had entered into a preliminary truce with the Irish, known as the Cessation of ^ Arms, The Irish truce, however, brought very little ad-

Charles and -r, t i i -n i • i i • i t -i •»

thciruh vantage. It released the English army which had been cesMtum stationed in Ireland, but the troops had hardly reached England wlien they were routed by Fairfax at Nantwich, and the majority of the survivors at once took service under the jnarJiament.

1644]

KABSTOK HOOB

355

On the 19th of January, the Scots under David Leslie crossed the border twenty thousand strong, and uniting with Fairfax,

succeeded in shutting up in York, Newcastle and the M(Krr,JviXy army with wliich he had swept Yorkshire the year

before. In April they were joined by Manchester with the army of the Eastern Association. Charles fully realized the importance ot saving Newcastle, and accordingly ordered Rupert to raise an army and advance to his relief. Eupert by a masterly movement passed around the allies to the left bank of the Ouse and entered the city from the north with safety. Not

satisfied, however, with saving the city, since he now commanded both royalist armies, he determined to fight, and leading out the combined forces, on July 2 faced the allies on Marston Moor. Cromwell's horse for the first time met the famous cavaliers of Rupert and, npported by Leslie, after a stubborn contest proved their superiority by driving them from the field. Newcastle's infantry fought desperately; some regiments perished to a man; but they were unsupported and heroism could not save them. Newcastle fled to Flanders. Rupert with his shattered cavalry succeeded in getting back to the Severn. The allies had won the

'856 THE OIYIL WAR [<

first decisiye engagement of the war; the north now passed into their hands.

In the south affairs were not going so well for the parliament.

While Leslie and Fairfax were besieging Newcastle in York,

rfh^irn ^^^^ '^ marched out of London at the head of the

eampaiifn train-bands, intending to uaite with Essex for a

joint attack upon the king at Oi^ford. When they learned, however, that Charles had slipped away into Worcester- shire, it was determined to leave Waller to carry on the siege, while Essex marched into the southwest. Charles saw his advantage, and at once turning upon Waller, beat him at Cropredy

Bridge and so discouraged his raw levies, that they ^iS^mi. r^^^'^d *^ London. Charles then hurried after Essex

and surrounded him at Lostwithiel. The foot were compelled to surrender; the cavalry cut their way through to Ply- mouth; Essex made his escape to London by sea.

Thus the reverses of Charles in the north were offset somewhat by his successes in the south. If he had lost an army at Marston

Moor, the Puritans had lost an army at Lostwithiel. ^J*^ ^f If he had lost the northern counties, the Puritans had

lost the western counties. Leslie might have led his Scots into southern England and more than made good the loss of Essex's infantry, but the royalist earl of Montrose was creating such a diversion in Scotland that Leslie dared not pass the Hum- ber when he might soon be needed beyond the Tweed to save the Lowlands.

The parliamentary leaders, while thus unable to concentrate their forces and take advantage of their great victory at Marston ZKrteiofw Moor, were also divided among themselves as to the ^ruament- ^^matc object of the war. The conduct of the war ary leaden. y^^A been entrusted to a joint committee of both kingdoms. The committee, however, was large ar^d unwieldy; it was seriously divided upon ecclesiastical quebtions, but more seriously upon the final issues of the war. The Presbyterians at heart were royalists and desired only to bring the king to terms. The Puritan nobles, moreover, were thoroughly alarmed at the democratic tendencies which the war was developing, aud did not

1644. 1645] THE NEW MODEL ORDINANCE P57

wish to crush the king altogether, lest the rising tide of revolution sweep away their privileges as well in the overthrow of the monarchy. The Independents, however, had no sympathy with the lingering royalist sentiment of their allies, and, while they had not yet advanced so far as to desire the destruction of the king, much less the monarchy, saw clearly that their lives or their property could be secure only after they had completely crushed the last vestige of royalist military power and restored peace to the nation upon their own terms.

These dissensions were soon to bear fruit on the field of battle, iifter Marston Moor, Manchester and Cromwell, leaving Fairfax The fiecond ^^^^ ^^^® Scots to rcduco Pomf ret and Newcastle-on- {J2J^ ^^^i Tyne and watch the progress of affairs in Scotland, and^Man^^^ had marched south to prevent the return of Charles Chester, from the west and protect London. They met Charles at Newbury in October. The Puritan army was greatly superior, and only the Unwillingness of Manchester to crush Charles altogether, prevented Cromwell and Waller from repeating the triumph of Marston Moor. The inertness of Manchester at once brought the quarrel of Independents and Presbyterians to a head. Cromwell brought charges against Manchester in the House, and Manchester replied by preferring counter charges against Crom- well. The quarrel rapidly developed into a struggle to get possession of the army.

In this struggle the Presbyterian majority apparently had their own way at first, but the failure of negotiations which were Thc^'Xcw undertaken with the king at Uxbridge in January, imme'^^^The ^^^urally produced a reaction, and parliament, with 3^^J2r7*^- renewed determination to win, addressed itself to the

MiQ (.Aral- '

nancer reorganization of the army. In February, it passed the "New Model Ordinance" and followed it in April by the famous ''Self -Denying Ordinance." By the one, it proposed to enlist a new army of 14,000 foot, 6,000 horse, and 1,000 dragoons; the recruits were to be taken from among the veterans of Essex and Waller and Manchester, and were to serve to the end of the war; strict discipline was to be introduced and regular wages pre- scribed. By the second ordinance it was enacted that all o£Scere

368 THE CIVIL WAR [

of the army and navy who were also mdmbers of parliament, should resign their commissions within forty days. In this way it was proposed to weed out Manchester and Essex, but unfortunately Cromwell also was included. Sir Thomas Faii*fax, the son of Lord Fairfax, who had proved his ability in the northern campaigns with his father, was made commander-in-chief. A rank of lieutenant-general, carrying with it the command of the horse, was created but significantly left vacant.

While Fairfax was organizing the "New Model," as the recon- structed army was called, Charles had already begun the campaign

by leaving Oxford, where he was blockaded by Fairfax, jTmeuiis^s ^ attack Leicester. If successful he would gain a

centra] position of great advantage. Fairfax marched north with the idea of forcing a battle. On June 13, he was joined by Cromwell, who, at the solicitation of. the officers and men of Fairfax's command, had been appointed by parliament to the still vacant post of lieutenant-general. The next day was fought the battle of Naseby, in which the New Model completely justified the wisdom of its projectors, destroying the royalist army and leaving only a shattered renmant of the horse to draw off with Bupert and the king. But more serions to the king's cause than the defeat, was the capture of a box of secret dispatches, by which the whole history of his intrigues with the French and the Irish became known, and the little lingering confidence of the English in his good faith completely destroyed. Shires where thousands had sprung to arms when the king first unfurled his banner, refused to fight longer for the perfidious Stuart.

In Scotland, the victories of Montrose still gave the king some slight hope. Montrose had left York after Marston Moor and

made his way across the border disguised as a groom. Scotland, Once in the Highlands he had put himself at the head

September, r. .i -.r i i t mi 0 -it t • * 1 .

1944 to Sep- of the Macdonalds. Then followed a series of daring and brilliant operations which in a few months made him complete master of the Lowlands. But unfortunately his Highlanders, after their custom, now insisted upon going home to secure their booty, and left him with a much weakened force to meet David Leslie in person, who was hastening up from the

1645] BOWTON HEATH 359

south with the yeterans who had fought at Marstoa Moor. Montrose was attacked at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, September 13, and his small army completely routed. In one day the fruit of all his victories had been swept away, and nothing was left for the young commander but to get out of the country as quickly as possible. His youth, his single-hearted devotion to the king, his rapid successes, the suddenness and completeness of the overthrow, mark his career as one of the most romantic chapters of the war. The end of the war was now in sight. On July 15, a month after Naseby, Fairfax had defeated Ooring at Langport. Mon- ^ ^ trose, however, at the time was still in the high-tide of

The end of , ^ , , , , . - .? , i .

the First Victory and held out a pronuse of success, if the kmg could only join forces with him. Charles accordingly was hurrying north with his last army, when, September 24, he was stopped near Chester and again defeated at Bowton Heath. Jlf^tfyJ^ A few days later came news of the disaster at Philip-

temb^rliT ^^^8^> ^^^ *^^ ^^""S rctumed to Oxford, satisfied that 1645. }^is kingdom was not to be saved by the appeal to arms.

His armies had been destroyed or scattered. He had made arrange- ments with Edward Somerset, earl of Glamorgan, to bring over ten thousand Irish soldiers, but Glamorgan had been wrecked on the Lancashire coast. The Irish allies of Charles did not appear, and the project, when known, only added to the bitterness of his enemies. His scheme for securing continental help fared no better. Henrietta Maria had succeeded in hiring the services of ten thousand men of the duke of Lorraine, but neither the Dutch nor the French would supply the necessary ships for getting the duke and his mercenaries over the sea. To add to the dis- comfiture of Charles, he had scarcely reached Oxford, after the retreat from Bowton Heath, when he heard that Bristol had been stormed and Prince Bupert had surrendered. In the spring the army of the west also surrendered to Fairfax. Although a few detached castles still held out, Charles determined to throw him- self upon the old-time loyalty of the Scots, in hope that he mighC find better terms with them than with the parliament. Accord- ingly in May, he suddenly appeared in the Scot camp before Newark, the last of the midland fortresses to resist, and there

360 PABLIAMEKT AND ABMT [(

gave himself up. The Scots receiyed him kindly and sent him to Newcastle, to be kept as a sort of hostage until the questions which the war had raised between the two kingdoms shonld bo settled. Harlech, the last of the royalist strongholds, continued to hold out until the next year. The "First Civil War'* was ended.

CHAPTER IV

THE PARLIAMENT AND THE ABMT

CHARLES /., 1646-1649

THE COMMONWEALTH, 1649-1653

After the surrender of the king there was every reason to expect a speedy and definite settlement of the troubles of the kingdoms. But unfortunately for Charles he had not wicScoto*^ surrendered to the Scots for the purpose of ending the strife. He hoped, rather, by appealing to the old enmity of Scotsmen and Englishmen, to draw the Scots to his support, and thus be able once more to put himself at the head of a royalist army. The Scots became disgusted and in their irritation turned the king over to the English, and went home. They estimated the expense to which the war had put them at £400,000; this parliament agreed to pay and at once voted the first installment of £200,000. Charles was brought into North- amptonshire and lodged at Holmby House.

The wise moderation of the Scots was in marked contrast with the hard-headed turbulence of the English sectaries. A body of The PreshU' ^^^^^^^ ^^ Westminster had now been sitting since July mlSuw 1643, and, since the Presbyterians were in overwhelm- Modei, ing majority, had been steadily working out a plan

which proposed virtually to substitute Presbyterianism for the Laudian system. A part of their work had already been adopted by the parliament, where the Presbyterians were also in the majority.

The New Model, however, in which Independents largely preponderated, and in whose ranks no difference had ever been jnade between the adherents of the several Puritan sects, was

1647] THE KEW MODEL 361

not pleased, and did not hesitate to express disapproval of measures which savored of persecution. The parliament could not mistake the awakening spirit of insubordination, and in alarm proposed to disband the soldiers, on the plea that, since the war had ended, it was unnecessary to continue the expense of such a large military establishment. There was, however, besides the religious interest a very clear financial interest at stake in which every soldier regardless of his faith was interested. There was due the New Model, for its services to the government, an arrears of £300,000, but parliament, in its eagerness to get rid of the now thoroughly insubordinate army, proposed to send the soldiers homo upon the payment of one-sixth only of the arrears. The result was to precipitate the very mutiny which the parliamentary leaders so much dreaded. The soldiers as one man determined not to be disbanded until their claims for back pay had been settled in full. Cromwell was both an oflficer and a member of parliament, and did all in his power to bring about an accom- modation. But when this failed, with Fairfax he threw his whole influence on the side of his old comrades in arms. The parlia- mentary leaders in great fear turned to the king and called upon tlie Scots to assist them in restoring the Stuart. The terms which

they oflEered the king were not known, yet they could the king. uot canT ou the negotiations so secretly that their

purport could not be divined, and Cromwell at once sent Cornet Joyce with a detachment of cavalry to Holmby to secure the king's person.

Parliament was now thoroughly alarmed; but while tne members were talking wildly of arresting Cromwell and of bring- The NciP ^^^ *'^® Scots to the aid of the train-bands of London hlmdim^^ in order to destroy the New Model, the army had ^u(/u«ti?. begun to draw nearer to the city. The advance of the army, as well as the indifference of the train-bands, seemed for the moment to bring the parliament to its senses, and it consented to ask the army to state its grievances. For a time matters promised to mend; but the chiefs of the army were still sore tried by the mingled duplicity and indecision that continued to mark the counsels of parliament, which one day was ready to

362 PABLIAHENT AND ABUT [<

grant all that the army asked and the next day destroyed the effect of its concessions by the intrigues of its members. Still, Cromwell and the other officers hesitated to march upon the city, hoping against hope to settle all difficulties by peaceable means. But on July 26, the intrigues of the Presbyterian leaders suc- ceeded at last in 'bringing on a great reaction in the city; a mob of apprentice boys broke into the Houses of parliament and compelled the frightened members to undo the legislation of the past few weeks that had been more friendly to the soldiers. The speakers of both Houses and many of the Independents fled to the army. The moment which many had foreseen had at last come. The officers hesitated no longer, and on the 6th of August, the New Model took possession of the city. Parliament like the king was now at its mercy.

The leaders of the army, howeyer, particularly Fairfax, Cromwell, and Ireton, had no wish to establish a military dictatorship, and, in despair of securing a peaceful the Proposals, settlement of affairs through the Presbyterian parlia- ^ ' ment, had already turned directly to the king, and on the 28th had formally submitted to him a conciliatory plan for the reorganization of the government, known as The Heads of the Proposals. Charles was, however, still infatuated with the idea of his personal importance; he saw that another civil war was at hand, and believed that, sooner or later, one side would be compelled to call upon the royalists for help, and then he might make his own terms. Accordingly he rejected The Heads of the Proposals, and continued his secret intrigues with the Scots.

In the meanwhile all things were not progressing smoothly even within the army. A determined band of extremists saw The night of ^^ ^^^ Conciliatory propositions of the leaders, the utc ^En^ ^^ evidence of a treachery deeper even than that of the gagemeru.** parliament, and in their bitterness denounced Crom- well as a ''Judas," and clamored for the trial of Charles on the charge of treason. Cromwell, however, was still disposed to use all his influence to save the king. But Charles, who was not ignorant of the clamors of the soldiers, instead of throwing himself upon the good faith of the officers, fled from Hampton Court

1547, 1648] THE SECOND CIVIL WAB 363

and finally sought refuge with Bobert Hammond, the parlia- mentary governor of the Isle of Wight. He was lodged in Carisbrooke Castle, where he soon found that he was again a prisoner and under more restraint even than at Hampton Court. He managed, however, to keep up secret negotiations with a reactionary party of nobles in Scotland, who had recently come

into power, and on December 26, signed the fatal Lumber 26, ''Engagement'* by which he "engaged" to set up

Presbyterianism in England for three years, and root out Anabaptists, Separatists, Independents, and other heresies of all kinds. The Scots on their part ^'engaged" to invade England and cooperate with Charles in overthrowing the existing parliament and reestablishing his authority. Then a "full and free parliament" was to be summoned, in order to secure a permanent peace. The intrigue was not known at the time, but the results were soon felt. Parliament had already sent to Charles its ultimatum, known as the Four Bills; these were now rejected. Parliament, angered beyond endurance, broke with the Scots, reestablished the Committee of Public Safety, and on January 15 passed the Vote of No Addresses ^ by which it shut off all further communication with the king under the penalty of high treason. In the summer of 1648, risings occurred almost simultaneously in Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wales, and the northern counties. _ „ ^ Parliament and army were at once forced to put by Civa War' their suspicions and turn a united front to the common

foe. In a great prayer-meeting held by the army before departing for the war, Cromwell confessed that he bad been at fault in attempting to negotiate with Charles at all, and the entire assembly resolved "that it was their duty, if ever the Lord brought them back again in peace, to call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for the blood shed in the war." In this grim mood the New Model, more terrible than ever, marched under Fairfax and Cromwell to put down the new royalist uprising. On June 1, Fairfax forced the southern insur- gents to fight at Maidstone. The survivors retired into Colchester in Esse;[ and closed the gates in hope of holding out until the Scots came to their relief. Cromwell in the meanwhile had

364 PARLIAMENT AND ARMY [CBAmiMS.

marclied into Wales, and, by a few qnick blows, crushed the rising before it was fairly upon its feet. He then hurried north OperaUon8 ^ meet the Scots, who by this time had crossed the and^rt^ border and united with the northern insurgents. The ^'^^ two armies met at Preston, August 17; Cromwell com-

pletely outgeneraled Hamilton, the royalist leader, beating one detachment on the 17th, and, by seizing the bridges over the Bibble and Darwen, cut off the retreat of the remainder and routed them the next day at Wigan and Winwick. On the 27th of August, Colchester surrendered to Fairfax, and all armed resist- ance on land was at an end.

The renewal of the Civil War, the needless shedding of the blood of their comrades, had put the New Model in a very Pj.^^,^ dangerous temper. After the fall of Colchester, the

^i*rg^i)e- royalist leaders, Lucas and Lisle, were immediately ^*^- court-martialed and shot. Hamilton and other

oflScers who took part in the northern rising were executed in the following spring ; nor were the army leaders, now fully conscious of their power, inclined to be more constitutional in their methods of dealing with parliament or the king. Parlia- ment was still inclined to renew negotiations with the idea of restoring the king, but the army would hear of no action that had not for its object the bringing of "Charles Stuart, the man of blood," to justice. The Commons, however, insisted, and on December 5 declared for a reconciliation. At this the ofl5cers became desperate; and on the 6th, Ireton directed Colonel Pride, who had charge of the guard which had been placed at Westminster Hall, to exclude the chief Presbyterian members. Pride did his work so thoroughly that hardly sixty members were left sitting. Cromwell returned to London that evening.

The parliament, now no longer a parliament, but only the maimed instrument of the army, which later its enemies in rh«"Rump'» derision styled the *'Eump," determined to proceed WnhCourt ^^^^ ^^® ^^*^ ^^ ^^® ^^^S' ^^^ ^^^ Lords who re- t(etr^of^ mained at Westminster protested, but the Commons the king. denied the authority of the House of Lords and pro- ceeded to establish a special tribunal with full powers, the High

1649] DEATH OF THE KINO 365

Court of Jnstice, consisting of one hundred and thirty commis- sioners. Cromwell of course was a member of this court; John Bradshaw was made president.

The first meeting of the High Court of Justice was held on

the 9th of January. Many of the commissioners had no relish

for their task, and when on the 20th Charles was finally

Trial and "^

death of brought into Westminster Hall, only sixty members remained at their posts. Charles denied the authority of the unusual tribunal and refused to plead. The judges, how- ever, went through the mockery of hearing evidence in order to prove that Charles Stuart had raised an army against the parlia- ment and taken part in the Civil War. On the 27th, the court gave its decision, declaring Charles Stuart to be **a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation," and fixed the death penalty. On the 30th of January, the con- demned king was led out to Whitehall to die.

If the Independent minority who had struck down the king, thought that this act would contribute to the settlement of the troubles of the hour, they soon found that they were SrSteoJtoT*. seriously mistaken. The economic life of the nation had suffered seriously as a result of the Civil War. Thousands of individuals had been ruined; public works had been abandoned, in cases destroyed altogether. Among those that had suffered seriously was the great work begun by the earl of Bedford in 1G34 for the draining of the Fen country. Thousands of acres had been thrown out of cultivation. Little respect was shown to the civil law; crime and violence had increased steadily; murder, arson, and highway robbery, were common events of daily life. These were only symptoms of a deeper malady, the general decay of civilization.

It was time, therefore, that a strong and efficient government should be established, founded upon law and supported by the loyalty of the people. But how was this possible when the laws plainly prescribed "King, Lords, and Commons'* as the most conspicuous instruments of legal government, and '^King, Lords, and Commons" had been swept away; when the great mass of the people were not loyal and the army was the only power in the

366 PARLIAMENT AND ARMY [tbb Oohm<

land capable of exercising any authority at all, which from the nature of the case must be illegal and revolutionary.

In January, while the king's case was still pending, the council of officers had presented to the body, which still called

itself a parliament, a plan for reconstructing the ^wJesSS government, called the "Agreement of the People.*' ItfXePeS^" The first article of this plan proposed the dissolution

of the existing parliament in the coming April; but the Bump had its own programme to carry out, and quietly ignor- ing the demand of the officers for an early dissolution, on February 13, appointed a Council of State to exercise the executive functions of government. On March 17, it proceeded to abolish the office of king, and declared any one who attempted to assist the heirs of Charles Stuart to regain the crown, to be traitors to the state. On March 19, it also abolished the House of Lords, declaring it to be ''useless and dangerous," and on May 19, it declared ''the people of England and of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging ... to be a Commonwealth and X Free State by the supreme authority of this nation. " If, however, the Bump had apparently ignored the Agreement in refusing to abolish itself also among the rest of the wreckage of Charles's reign, the leaders had no wish to cut loose from the army. Not only were Cromwell and Fairfax made members of the Council of State, but in the ordinance of March 17, the Bump formally pledged "to put a period to the sitting of this present parliament as soon as may possibly stand with the safety of the people that hath betrusted them," and of "the government now settled in the way of a Commonwealth."

This hesitation of the Bump to voto its own death warrant, was not due altogether to an unworthy desire on the part of its

members to cling to power as long as possible. If and the they should allow the people to elect a new parjiament,

in their present temper there could be no question as to what kind of parliament would be returned; — a parliament which would at once undo all that had been done, proclaim Charles II., reestablish Episcopacy, and begin a long series of confiscations, executions, and a general persecution of Independ-

u	1 IRELAN during QIVIL WABl TKB 8TUAET	1 D	^	J".
I	R	i	p	p
"2	^^	3	i	MK>Tn^X
i				1 oV-"HV~</ ■	\ 1
1	W	^	>-

1849] THB LEYBLLEBS iM7

ents. The men in the army, however, who had leonred the adoption of the Agreement by the council of officen, wore not satisfied. They represented the dangerous element known as Levellers, who under the guidance of men like ^^ Free-bom John Idlbume," were already raising a cry of warning against Croni' well. Unfortunately for their influence, however, Lilbame and his followers had begun the propaganda of an oneompromising and impossible democracy, which would certunly nmdt In th* subversion of all order, social or military, so that the wxmnl feared the Levellers more than they feared any poesibk toMtkfa of Cromwell, and turned to him as the one man who was abk Uk save the state and society from revolutionary madness. Ift tf/iut^ therefore, of the warning of the Levellers, who shrieLrf tiM Cromwell would make himself king, all the conservative ikwmmUM still in power turned to him, tbe child of the r^rvvbtaiM^ moA called upon him to save them from tbe if/nf» wbieh Hn^ i&iMu- selves had unchained. In 1045^, mutin<ms //utbreaks V/>k fua^ a London, Banbaiy, and Salisbury. Kui O/xowd] acid ¥wsitt^ under the oommistsvn <rf tb^ ^;f/vmA^ cru^hiiA XlMstm wrJk ist unspaiing hand. Y*ft theft were vfJy thr«f e»ienrt4iiwif— • fidrMft and two oorponJi. Lilhur:.*f ulr^aAj -wm ;» Mi^ Tvww; mA Jot October was tned kk^ um^ cjuarare ^vf ^/jrrhn^ uy Xr^am^i 7U 1M army, but att;:;LV>A Ti^t fe«t ^4 ^JhH myUtjts^^n w«r* jmwf^ again into tLe rsij.i:^

The outbratc vf rv, Cv HV ;a» Vji^^^itoA \aA wutiffrff changed tue ^j:-ui;n»v'-%?f vf v--, v>^ «*^virjf-^ >. \^^.}t^.i.^. ^'ui^

was fnnii**5' r.^viir t-'-i**-^^ ^-^ '^^ 4//>t>aii^x '/ ^v»4*.44*; ^eit^Mift

wai hrw»r.V'. a-vv.'. ►-. -'/^a v/m^s •** r^.ii<>. 'f>i*'/*9^ 4Kit |»»*i;^ is0k ^suti \v^r.M A^'A*4^. «^^H>» uitA^ JintulA irtt:

368 PABLIAHEKT AND AHMY [tbs Oohmovwialth

two posts were almost the only footholds which the Common- wealth had retained, and even these were besieged by the Irish in OYerwhelming numbers. If Ireland, therefore, were to be saved to the Commonwealth, and the reaction in England prevented from securing here an important base for the future, action must be taken at once.

The government turned to Cromwell and found him and his Ironsides just as ready to fight royalists in Ireland as in England.

On the 3d of September, Cromwell appeared before SXilM. Drogheda, and on the 10th summoned its garrison of

2,800 men, the flower of Ormond's English soldiery, to surrender. The garrison refused, and the next day Cromwell took the place by assault. No quarter was given ; every man in arms was slaughtered outright, save a few who were shipped off as slaves to the sugar plantations of the Barbadoes. The men of the cassock who were found in the city suffered the fate of the soldiers. The next month, the garrison of Wexford suffered the fate of the defenders of Drogheda. It was not necessary to repeat the bloody lesson a third time. To most of the garrisons the summons to surrender was sufficient. While Cromwell was thus vigorously putting down the royalists on the laud, Blake was pushing the royalist navy upon the Irish seas until Rupert was glad to retire to Portugal. In March, Cromwell returned home at the urgent summons of parliament, and left the completion of his work to Ireton. The English who remained suffered severely from fever; some of their best men died; among them finally Ireton himself. But the hope of the Stuarts of securing help in Ireland had vanished ; and with the Stuart passed also the last chance of a successful Irish revolt. The Catholic form of worship was suppressed; the lands of the Celtic proprietors were con- fiscated and turned over to Puritan veterans or sold to speculators, ** Undertakers," who promised to find settlers. An iron rule was introduced, rapine and murder punished, and peace once more reigned over the desolate country.

Cromwell had been called home by the threat of a new war with Scotland. The Scots had not been pleased by the drift of affairs in England, and when they heard of the execution

1650. lesij

860

of the king, as they were an independent people, they at once invited the Prince of Wales to be their king. The Bnmp knew that Charles would never be eatiefied with Scotland alone, and determined to strike at once and expel him before he had gathered the strength of his little king- dom. Fairfax, who np to this point bad retained his com-

Charlei- ai ScoUamL

Cvmicrll command.

miBBion in the army, objected to violating the Solemn League and Covenant npon the ground of mere "hnman probabilities," and threw np hiB commission rather than load in a war against his old allies. Cromwell waa at once advanced to the vacant post of Lord General. In Jnly 1050, Cromwell crossed the border with an army of sixteen thousand men supported by the fleet, which followed thie coast to furnish them with supplies on the march, tor the Scots as usual had completely wasted the country. He found the Scota under the command of David Leslie, in a strong position near

870 PABLIAHEKT AND ABKY ['

Leith, but, after manoenyering for a month without dislodging them, he was compelled to retire to Dunbar. Leslie followed him

warily and took up a strong position on the Hill of gjwg^^^ Doon above Dunbar. Unfortunately for the Scots,

however, Leslie in his anxiety to prevent the escape of Cromwell, on September 2, moved down into the low ground by the sea in order to get wSbhin striking distance. Cromwell saw his advantage, and under cover of the night following, which was dark and stormy, brought his army into position to attack Leslie *s right wing on the flank. The attack began at four in the morning. At daybreak the entire Scottish army was scattered among the Lammermuir hills, and Cromwell's road to Edinburgh lay open. From Dunbar, Leslie retired to Stirling where he again took up a position too strong to be assailed in front and in close

communication with the northern districts which lay vadM Eng- behind him. Cromwell, in order to turn Leslie's

position, crossed the Forth, and placed himself in his rear. The movement, however, left the road into England open; and in August, Leslie suddenly broke camp, and began a serieB of forced marches for the border. Cromwell, leaving Monk in Scotland, hurried after Leslie with his main body, and on September 3, the anniversary of Dunbar, forced him to fight at Worcester against vastly superior numbers. The Scots fought with the heroism of despair. Only a remnant of the army managed to get back to Scotland. Charles, assisted by English royalists, who had refused to fight for him, escaped from the field, and after six weeks of wandering, at last reached Brighton and got away to France. The submission of Scotland followed; the Presbyterian assemblies were suppressed, and Scotland was united with England in a Commonwealth without king or lords* "While Cromwell had been establishing the authority of the Commonwealth within the British Islands, Admiral Blake, hardly

less eminent in naval warfare, had been extending its mrniwecMh prestige upon the seas. He had driven Rupert from

the Irish coast, followed him to the Tagus, and finally compelled him to cross the Atlantic. Here the storms of the tropics proved more fatal than the guns of Blake, and after losing

1600, I6n] xarscAn asj> zcz eactz 3Tl

the gmt p«it «f hii S€« 5a & liTri-anff o-- --* rK£s of AnegadaB, Bnpert renimss«i :•> E-r:re ^u-lj -.ji-r i-tn j-ar, v^ disband hu creva and **L1 iif fr^ •irr.-r-^i^ -l-its :•■. "ir IrrZjiz^ Whererer the Engiiih iir 5:*-.r'L :- Jc: :-r =ra, ".i-s '.oa.- monwealth was now recojriiizrti.

The Commonwealth h^ z.*t*t :•*«- joi -Iaj !:. :Jir XTinj of EoFope. Yet Spain had LOE::^>r f r :-:r.-fTr.:i^ - :i^ i:2i-^::c affairs of En^iaci ii.i =•:•:- r**: r.-^r-i :i^ lct *:t.

Moiiareattfc enuneo:. The T:ir^ £.:.r :: rri'.: 7. :- :^-r c:-rr hand, was a cocr-i: :f :--: ci-r*: ^.z^r.. 4::: :::« sympathies of the co^ir: w^re r-^-lj e-.--:ri ii. Li- livor. French and Kngli-fh mer:LA-:n-T-- ili-:. is -?::il ir. :::--;V.r'i times, had began to prej -p<E. *;2*:i. '::i.^r. 11. : ".i^ Z::zllii i^^l licensed this piracy by iuzlzz r^-lij Ic'.Trrs of r-rprli^I. T-e French goremment w^; zr.rr^i r^rj z^izr^V.j, a:.: r^fj=ei :o recognize the Comm:-:.weal:i i:.'.zSi ''z-i l-rt^rr- cf r^irliil were withdrawn.

In The Hagae it mlz^* l^ ei:.«ec".-ri :Li: Er./.i:. : »--..": i f.zA friends. Bnt a serl« of grleTir.:-H. =; :-r.j :f . .::.::i-rr::jl rivalry and da::L.g W.k is lir i^ :i:e rriiT. :f Jinirs I., Lad TS^HagZf **^° LOiarlrLeii r,T V..:L r-ecr.e. ani hji kep: allTe a feeliLZ of bi:>n:e^r. wLl:'- r.i: n.re :hAi. once been fanned into acta of owrr. L:=::1::t. The .S:iii/. ;er. William IL, moreoTer, was the =OL-:L-Lix :f CLar'.-.-s I., ai. 1 L^l 2"lven acjlum to English royalists &s fre^'v as :h.-i Frvr-.h. Ir. 1' •>'• William II. died, and alihoagh the Iio*l:ALi^r= r»:f iv:! to •:• .r-tiriue the offi^-e of Stadholder, the cLar.i'e did lo: :L::*:-aio trie iniluerice of England, since the snpren:*/ authority ir. the .States-General of the SeTen Provinces re=ted iri the Lands of a body of rich merchants, who particularly chv-rished all tiie old grudges and more than ever feared the commercial activity of the English. In 1651 the Dutch saw these fears fnily justified in the passage by the English j^rliament of the famous act, known afterward as the First Xavitr^ition Act. Bv this act, foreicn v«sels were forbidden to bring into an English i>ort any goods other than those produced in their own countries. The measure was not aimed particularly at the Dutch, but was designed rather to favor

872 PABLIAHEm: AKD army [TnOonKwinuLzm

the Englisli carrying trade. Bat it affected the Dutch most, for they had become the common carriers of Europe, and were vigorous competitors of the English in their own ports. A far more serious cause of quarrel lay in the claim of the English privateers of the right to seize and bring into port for trial Dutch vessels suspected of carrying French goods. In 1652 these seizures rapidly increased, and the Dutch saw their carrying trade, which was the chief source of their wealth, in danger of utter destruction. Another cause of irritation, also, was given by the English revival of the old Plantagenet claim to sovereignty over the British seas. The Dutch were not to fish in the seas without paying a tribute for the privilege, and flag and sail must be dipped whenever a Dutch vessel passed an English flag within these waters.

The English council had been by no means a unit in pressing these obnoxious measures upon the Dutchmen. To Cromwell and others a war with the Dutch seemed almost like a war upon their own kindred; but Vane and Martin were too Cromioeiito deeply interested in building up English commerce. They looked upon the war as the surest way of accomplishing this end, and carried their point; the Dutch were left the alternative, either to fight or submit.

In May, hostilities were begun by Blake and Van Tromp oflE Folks tone. In July, parliament declared war. Several minor Theiirst engagements occurred during the summer and early bMun^au *^tumn without any particular advantage on either ^««- ' side, but on the 30th of November, 1652, Van Tromp,

after eight hours of hard fighting off Dungeness, with ninety ships defeated Blake with forty ships. The blow was so serious that the English feared that a blockade of the Thames would follow. The peace party urged a speedy truce, but Vane and Martin were still all-powerful in the Eump and the council, and instead of suing for peace, sent out a new fleet under Blake, Dean, and Monk. On the 18th of February, off Portland Bill, the English fell in with Van Tromp in convoy of the Bordeaux fleet, and in a running fight of three days, completely discomfited him, capturing eleven ships of war and thirty merchantmen.

The reversal of the fortunes of war, however, came too late

1651] THE BUMP 873

to save the Bump. It had never been popular; nor had it been able to court popularity by diminishing taxation. It had attempted Growing dia- ^^ ^^^® those who Were loyal to the Commonwealth wu^tM^ from some of the burdens of the war, by despoiling Rump. the "Malignants," as the royalists were called, either

confiscating their estates outright or imposing a ruinous com- position. But the injustice of these acts had only reacted upon the Rump, and charges of corruption and favoritism, too well founded in many instances, were freely circulated and believed. Outside of Westminster, moreover, certain wild plans of reform were daily winning new adherents, particularly in the army. Conspicuous among these reformers were the Fifth Monarchy Men, to whom belonged some men of considerable influence, as Major General Harrison. They believed that the second coming of Christ was at hand, and that it was the duty of the godly to use force in ushering in that event by establishing the rule of the saints on earth. The propagation of such views naturally increased the general dissatisfaction with the Rump, whose rule had now come to be regarded as responsible for the slow pace with which the hoped-for social and religious reforms had appeared. The members cared little for the dissatisfaction of the country, but they knew that they could not defy the sentiment which was growing in the army. When, therefore, the battle of Worcester brought the army home again, and the leaders once more began to take an active part in politics, the Rump was forced to act, and in November 1651, it definitely fixed upon November 3, 1654, as the day when it would formally retire. The members then turned their attention to closing up their work and preparing for their successors. They still feared a free pop- ular election, however, such as the army demanded, and in August Sir Ilenry Vane introduced a measure by which the present mem- bers were to retain their seats and new writs were to be issued only for those election districts which had been deprived of representation by Pride's Purge, or by death, or other cause; the new members, furthermore, were to bo approved by the old Rump.

The ^'Perpetuation Bill," as it was called in derision by the

874 PARLIAMENT AND ARMY [tu OonKunriALni

enemies of the Bump, which proposed not to elect a new parlia- ment, but simply to recruit the old one, naturally did not satisfy the army. The loaders protested, and in hope of

The Rump ,.'' .... ^ m

expeutd, reaching a compromise, a series of informal conferences ' were held, in which the matter was discussed freely between Vane, Whitelock, and others of the Bump, and Crom- well, Harrison, and other representatives of the army. On the evening of April 19, 1653, a conference had been held at Gromwell's lodgings and had broken up as usual without an agreement, but with a tacit understanding that another x^ouf erence should be held before final measures were taken. When, there- fore, the next morning, word was brought to Cromwell that parliament was about to pass the bill after all, he summoned a company of the men who had long learned to obey him without a question, and went with them to the Parliament House. Leaving his men in the lobby, he entered the House. As he belonged there and was dressed in citizen's clothes, his entry probably attracted little notice. For a while he listened to the debate and waited; but when the motion was made for the third reading, he arose and began to speak. At first his manner was quiet and under full control. But as he continued to speak of the injustice, the self-seeking, and the abuse of high power, of the men who sat before him, he warmed to his work and with soldier-like bluntness singled out Vane, Martin, and others as the objects of direct attack. The first surprise of the members passed off, and Sir Peter Wentworth arose to call the daring debater to order, but Cromwell turned upon him and shouted, "Come, come, sir! we have had enough of this! I will put an end to yonr prating!** Then facing the door, he bade Harrison call the soldiers. The doors flew open; arms gleamed in the old hall, and the Bump was ignominiously turned out into the world. Neither the Bump uor the Long Parliament, however, was yet to pass into history. Under the law of its own making none but the Long Parliament tould dissolve the Long Parliament.

1658] THE PR0VI8I0KAL COUNCIL 375

CHAPTER V

CROMWELL AND THE PROTECTORATB

OLIVER CROMWELL. 1653-16^ RICHARD CROMWELL, 166»-16S0

Cromwell's position was now a difficult one. Some hoped, and perhaps expected, that he would make himself king. But such a consummation of the revolution could only be sup- sumaicfnmea, ported and maintained by the army, and Cromwell knew that if he could command the support of the ranks, he could not command the support of the officers. Fortunately for the peace of England, Cromwell had no theories to exploit, but with the same practical sagacity with which he had won his battles, addressed himself to the new task which con- fronted him. On April 29, he called about him a provisional council of state, consisting of seven men from the army and three civilians. The "Decemvirate," as the royalists called- the new council, was apparently as representative a body as Cromwell, under the circumstances, was able to bring together. It was sharply divided into two parties: the friends of Cromwell, who wished at once to make him protector, if not king; and the men who suspected Cromwell, of whom the leader was Harrison, who was irrevocably opposed to a one-man government and wished to put the administration in the hands of ^Hhe saints.''

Much as Cromwell disliked Harrison's plan of turning the government over to a Sanhedrim of pious fanatics, the desirability p^,^^^^^^ of securing the support of Harrison and his followers, foreaiiinga induced him at last to consent to giving the "saints" a trial. The Independent ministers in each county of England were invited in the name of the General and the Council of the Army, to consult with their congregations and submit the names of such persons as they considered fit to sit in parliament; the nominees must be faithful, fear God, and hate "covetousness," — the Puritan's name for political corruption. On the 28th of May the replies were all in, and the council pro- ceeded to select 129 representatives for England. To them were

376 THB PBOTEOTOBATE [tu Oommovwialth

added five for Ireland and six for Scotland. ''For the first time in history a body was to meet in the name of the three peoples."

The body of nominated commissioners, for parliament it can hardly be called, assembled on July 4. One of the members from The "Nomi- London was a Baptist preacher, leather merchant, and ^(We^ar- politician, who was apparently well known in the city, liament,'' and whose unfortunate name, Praise-God Barbone, doubtless had already been the subject of many a merry jest. At all events the name was now too much for the wags, who straightway christened the assembly "Barebone's Parliament." As might be expected from the method of selection, the great body of the nominees were men of the very highest integrity. Some possessed real ability; but the most were lacking i^ practical wisdom.

On July 5, the nominees took up their quarters in the old House of Commons and proceeded to organize. Francis Eons, Failure of ^^® author of the metrical version of the Psalms so not^'por- • ^^^S ^8®d ^ ^^® Puritan churches, was elected Speaker ; ^^^'"'nenu and Cromwell, Lambert, Harrison, and Desborough were invited to take seats as members. On the Gth, the com- mission voted to call itself a parlicment, and later continued the authority of the existing council of state to November 3, at the Bame time increasing the number of counciUors to thirty-one. Cromwell, being a member of both the parliament and the council, as well as General of the army, retained his position of central influence. Harrison, however, was the natural leader of the enthusiasts in the House, and it was not long before he had gathered about him a considerable party, not a majority, but earnest, aggressive, and strong enough to have their way in most ordinary sessions, when the full membership was not present. After the routine of organizing the government waS com- pleted, the members addressed themselves to the serious reforms which demanded their attention. Most of the proposed reforms were certainly sound, and have been adopted by succeeding parliaments. They were far too radical, however, for the sevens teenth century. The lawyers, the clergy, the country gentry, even Cromwell himself at last, looked on in consternation. Yet

1658] THE INSTRUMENT OF OOYBBNMENT 377

Cromwell, the only man who had the power to interfere, hesitated. It woald not do to invade the Parliament House with soldiers a second time. Some of his friends, however, decided to relieve the General of his embarrassment, and on the 12th of December by preconcerted arrangement came together at an unnsoally early hour and, voting to give back their authority to Cromwell, declared the assembly at an end. When the other members arrived, they found that they had been dissolved by their own act and nothing was left for them but to acquiesce and go home. The whole nation gave a sigh of relief; the lawyers of the Inns of Court celebrated the event with boisterous rejoicings.

Had Cromwell foreseen the way in which the experiment of Harrison and the saints would turn out, he could not have

adopted a course which would have contributed more mtntofOov- to his own strength, or more certainly driven the men

of property to him for protection against the possi- bilities of further revolution, which lurked in the vagaries of radicals like Harrison. When, therefore, on December 16, General Lambert came forward with a scheme which placed monarchical power in the hands of Cromwell, all except the extreme sectaries and those who had opposed the dissolution of the Long Parliament, were ready to accept it as the wisest possible solution of the present difficulty. This plan, embodied ill "The Instrument of Government," provided for the three kingdoms a common government to consist of a chief executive to be styled the Lord Protector, a council of state of not more than twenty-one members, nor less than thirteen, and a parlia- ment of one House, consisting of 460 members, thirty of whom were assigned to Ireland and thirty to Scotland. Oliver Crom- well was named in the document as the first Lord Protector, and was further declared to hold the office for life. The office was not to be hereditary, and upon his death, the council were to appoint a successor. With the assistance of the council, he was to exercise full executive power, including the command of the army and navy. A new parliament must be elected every three years, and in case the proper officers failed to issue the writs within the prescribed time, then the sheriff and local officers wero

878 THB PROTEOTOBATE [ounnt CMMnrsjb

to proceed without writs and hold elections as though writs had been issued. The power of dissolution rested with the protector, but no parliament could be dissolved until it had been in session for at least five months. All who professed ^' faith in God by Jesus Christ'* were to be protected in the exercise of their religion as long as they did not interfere with others or disturb the public peace, "provided this liberty be not extended to Popery or Prelacy." It was further prescribed that a standing army of 30,000 men was to be regularly supported by parliament, likewise "a convenient number of ships for guarding of the seas"; £200,000 per annum were to be raised to meet the ordinary expenses of government, not to be "taken away or diminished, nor the way agreed upon for raising the same altered, but by the consent of the Lord Protector and the parliament." Ostensibly, the Instrument of Government was designed "to cet up a sort of strictly limited monarchy and a strictly limited parliament, mutually dependent on each other, so as to prevent the danger of either party becoming supreme." In reality it did nothing of the sort, but put almost unlimited power into the hands of Cromwell. The council adopted the Instrument, and on the 16th of December, 1G53, Cromwell was solemnly inaugurated in Westminster Hall.

The Instrument of Government provided that the first parlia- ment should meet in the following September. During the intervening months Cromwell turned to the task of istraHon of justifying the new arrangement in the minds of the ' public by the efficiency and moderation of the measures which he adopted for the peace and relief of the country. The Dutch war naturally demanded his first attention. The war had never been popular; its advocates had advanced the plea that it was to favor British commerce, but its effect had been to destroy British commerce almost entirely. Moreover, Cromwell himself had never favored the war, so that when the victory of February 1653 had been followed by a second victory in June, and a third in July, in which Van Tromp was killed, the way was open for closing the war upon terms most favorable to England.

The Dutch war and the negotiations which followed, reveal

1664] CROMWELL AND THE OHUBOH ' 379

the approach of an era in which the advantages of trade and commerce, rather Ihan religious enmities, posh to the front as the great cause of international struggle. The old at XSSd^* objects of warfare have not yet been altogether put aside, but they no longer dominate. The light of the morn- ing is in the words in which Cromwell outlined to the Dutch com- missioners the advantages of a policy of alliance for both people: The interests of both nations consisted in the welfare of com- merce and navigation ; the industry of the Dutch ought not to be prevented, but the English could not be deprived of the advantages which nature had given them in the way of good harbors and geographical situation; the world was wide enough for both peoples; if they could only ^'thoroughly well understand each other," their countries would become the markets of the world and dictate their will to Europe.

With the same clear-sighted energy, the protector turned to domestic affairs. The church naturally first attracted his atten- tion. Here anarchy had reigned for years. Many and the abuses had crept in and many unworthy men had taken advantage of the absence of supervision to secure livings. But this was no part of GromwelPs idea of toleration, and in March 1654, he created by ordinance a commission of thirty-five members, called ''Triers," to pass upon the personal character and sufficiency of all nominees for livings. A second ordinance, issued in August, appointed commissioners in each county to eject men of scandalous lives who already held livings.

The protector also turned his attention to the courts and appointed a mixed commission of lawyers and laymen to consider the present abuses and difficulties, and reduce the overgrown bulk of the Common Law to some practical form.

In Ireland Cromwell steadily pursued the later English policy which had been inaugurated by Chichester and Falkland. His crmnweU'8 lieutenant, Fleetwood, and after him Cromwell's son, wmin^^^^ Henry, ruled with an iron hand. The men who were Ireland. implicated in the earlier massacres were hanged or banished and their estates confiscated. The confiscations at the expense of Catholics continued steadily to the advantage of the

CBOl

380 THE PROTECTORATE [oum

English soldiery and the Adventurers. The Catholic religion was virtaally proscribed and the persecutions of the priests continued. The Irish parliament, also, was abolished.

The same vigor was shown by the protector in the administra- tion of Scottish affairs. Here the Bump had placed an able

lieutenant, George Monk, who after the disaster off ^^^^OcSSl^^ Dungeness had been transferred to the navy where he

served during the rest of the war as ''General at Sea," and proved himself as able as upon land. After the close of the war, Cromwell sent him back to his old command in Scotland, where much rough work still remained to be done in the reduction of the Highland clansmen who had rallied about General Middle- ton and were making a forlorn stand for Charles II. Monk proved himself an adept at mountain warfare^and it was not long before he compelled the last clansman to lay by his claymore and wait for better times for his beloved "Charlie." Presbyterianism was dethroned and all Protestant faiths were placed upon an equal footing before the laws.

The first protectorate parliament met on September 3, 1654. The protector had carried out his agreement in good faith, and

the new parliament represented fairly the several nrstpar- Protestant factions of the state: Presbyterians,

Royalists, Eepublicans, and Cromwellians. As soon as the members were assembled, the Presbyterians and Bepublicans joined forces to strike at the root of Cromwell's authority, claim- ing the right to revise the Instrument of Government, and denying to the protector the coordinate authority sanctioned by the existing settlement. Cromwell reminded the members of the conditions upon which they had accepted office, and insisted that each member should pledge himself not to attempt to alter the form of government. About two hundred and thirty members signed the agreement; the rest were excluded from the House. The most of those who refused to pledge themselves were Independents. The Presbyterians were thus left in control, and, while not nominally attacking the Instrument, yet continued to discuss its terms, specially limiting the provisions for securing religious toleration, and going out of their way to take up the

18l$5-1657] CROMWELL ABSOLUTE 381

case of a demented Quaker, named Biddle, who had managed to give special offense by the way in which he aired his views. Five lunar months had now passed and nothing had been done. Even the voting of much-needed supplies for the army and navy had been neglected, and Cromwell in despair determined to take advantage of the right conferred upon him by the Instrument, and on January 22, 1655, dissolved his first parliament.

Cromwell had acted technically within the powers conferred upon him by the new constitution. Yet he lost many friends.

Plots broke out among the Levellers in the army. The SwSSfrite. lioy^lists were greatly encouraged; in March it was

necessary to use the military to put down an insur- rection at Salisbury. Merchants refused to pay the imposts, on the plea that the government had no right to levy taxes without an act of parliament, and appealed to the courts. But Cromwell promptly dismissed the judges whose loyalty he had reason to doubt, exactly as Charles I. had done in the days of Hampden and ship-money. He went a step beyond Charles or even Went- worth, and virtually placed all England under martial law; dividing the country into eleven districts and placing over each a major general, responsible only to the protector and the council. Cromwell, further, turned upon the Episcopalian clergy, whom he, with justice perhaps, suspected of sympathizing with the recent revolts, and forbade them to teach in a public or private school, or to preach or to administer the sacrament, or to use the Prayer-book. The major generals also carried things with a high hand, organizing the militia, collecting taxes, and imprison- ing the enemies of the government without resort to civil forms. In a short time peace and order were restored.

In the autumn of 1654 war had virtually begun between the Conmionwealth and Spain. In 1655, Penn and Venables took

Jamaica and added it permanently to the list of MiwcS^^ English possessions in the new world. In February

1656, Spain formally declared war, and in 1657 France entered into an alliance with England. In April of the same year, Blake performed his famous feat at Santa Cruz which rivaled Drake's exploit of 1587. Passing the batteries which guarded

382 THB PBOTBOTOBATB [outbCboi

the entrance, he sailed into the harbor, and after a stabbom fight, burned and sank a fleet of sixteen Spanish galleons, and then retired without the loss of a ship.

In the meanwhile Cromwell had been compelled by the needs of his foreign war to summon another parliament. It met in September 1656 and may be fairly taken as represent- pariiament ing the height of Gromwellian influence. The vigorous foreign policy of Cromwell, the declaration of war by the Spanish king, the exploits of Blake, had reyived again traditions which had come down from the days of Elizabeth, and appealed powerfully to the patriotic sentiment of all classes; at the same time substantial peace and prosperity at home had gone far to reconcile many of the malcontents to the new order. Nevertheless the council found it necessary to deny seats to about one hundred of the returned members whose anti-Gromwellian sentiments were regarded as a menace to good order, leaving the new parliament so thoroughly Gromwellian that for several months nothing happened to disturb the placid current of routine.

In March 1657, the parliament, as a part of a general plan known as the Petition and Advice^ by which it was proposed to reorganize the government somewhat more in accord- 'ankj^M^ ance with ancient English traditions, formally agreed by a vote of 123 to 63, to confer upon the protector the title of king. Cromwell was not only to assume the title of king with power to nominate his successor, but parliament was henceforth to consist of two houses, — an elected *' House of Commons," and a second, styled the "Other House," the mem- bers of which were to be appointed by the king for life. It was also proposed to give to the government a yearly income of £1,300,000 to be continued during the life of the king.

Out of respect for his old comrades in arms, who had no wish to serve a *'King Oliver" any more than they had to serve a Thtgwem- ^^^S Charles, Cromwell refused to accept the royal JtSfetuier ^itl^' and his parliament dropped the offensive word thePetiiUm. from the new constitution. In this form Cromwell accepted the Petition, and on June 26, 1657, was solemnly installed for the second time as Lord Protector of the Common-

1658] DEATH OF GBOMWELL 383

wealth. Cromwell was now king in everything except in name; the title, the very crown, had been offered to him and it had been his to decline it. But even as it was, he soon fonnd he had taken a step which he could not retrace. Lambert, the author of the original Instrument, claimed that he had been deceived and refused to take the oath of allegiance. But more serious trouble followed when the parliament reassembled for its ofthesecfmd secoud session in January 1658. The members who had been excluded from the first session had been allowed to return. A number of Cromwell's friends, also, had been transferred to the new House of Lords. Thus an assembly which six months before had offered a crown to Cromwell, was transformed into a body pugnaciously hostile to kings and lords on principle. Haselrig opened an attack upon the new House of Lords; the Commons sustained him, refusing to recognize **the Other House" or transact any business with them. The government was at once thrown into confusion ; everything came to a standstill; and on February 4, Cromwell in great disgust dissolved his second parliament.

Cromwell did not long survive his new honors. The strong man, in short, was breaking under the load which he had assumed. Ills which he had contracted among the crftmweJi northern lowlands in the campaign of Dunbar had ever since been hard upon his track. On August 6, his favorite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, died. The unremitting care which he had given her in her last illness, and the new burden of grief which entirely overwhelmed him, were too much for his failing strength; he followed her by just four weeks, dying on his lucky day, the double anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester.

Thus passed the man whom the world is just beginning to understand. He was a practical, hard-fisted, iron man, yet capable of tenderness almost feminine. In will, he crSnSI^^^ was gigantic, inflexible; in intellect, slow, unimagin- ative, but profound; in thought, conservative, yet progressive; in purpose, sincere and upright; yet, in spite of ail, he was doomed at last to stand alone, because in an age of

dhril

884 THB PBOTECtORATS [ouomCMMivrBL

fanaticism he was the only fanatic who remained sane. In his idea of leligions toleration he was a man of the nineteenth centnry. He succored the Quakers. He tried to save the poor madman James Xaylor, who imagined himself the Messiah. He tried to protect the Unitarians, from whom the ordinary Puritan drew back in horror as blasphemers; he allowed Episcopalians to live in peace; he permitted the Jews to return to England, for the first time since their expulsion in the reign of Edward I. He promised Mazarin that, as soon as possible, he would secure toler- ation for Catholics also. As Cromwell belongs to the nineteenth century in his ideas of religious toleration, in his political tolera- tion he belongs to the twentieth century. "He was a republican who had no hatred for monarchy as an institution; he was a monarchist who helped to establish a republic as the only refuge from the tyranny of a bad king. He was a radical who hated radicalism, a Leveller who hoped to bring back a House of Lords.** At a time when the revolution was forcing all sorts of political theories into luxuriant growth, he remained without theories him- self, and sought to select from the wreckage of the older system, only what was durable, and what promised best to restore order and peace and liberty to the England which he loved. It is no marvel that men who thought that they held a monopoly of truth, regarded him sometimes as wicked and self-seeking, sometimes as a time-serving hypocrite, but always as lukewarm.

He is described as of ''great and majestic deportment and courtly presence." He loved the manly sports of hunting and

horsemanship. He loved music, delighted in art, and ?a«?^ was fond of surrounding himself with learned men.

On public occasions none could bo more dignified; yet he knew also how to unbend when within the inner circle of friendship; he could make doggerel verses to amuse his children, could crack rough jokes or smoke a pipe with his friends. He hated affectation. ''Paint me as I am," he said to Lely, "roughness, pimples, and warts, otherwise I will not pay you a farthing." Like Washington, "his temper was terrible when aroused"; then strong men trembled in his presence. In religion he was sincere and ardent; in private life he was simple and

1658,1059] BICHARD CROMWELL 386

loving. He had nothing of Napoleon's vanity in his public achieve- ments; he thought little of his place in history; he was not "the child of destiny," but simply *'a mean instrument to do 6od*s people some good."

On the death of Cromwell, his eldest son, Richard, passed quietly to the vacant post of protector. Thurloe, the protector's

secretary, who had most to do with bringing forward cnnnweii, the uew Cromwell, boasted *'that not a dog wagged

his tongue, so great was the calm." And yet the threat to the peace of England lay in the neutral character of the man whom Thurloe had done most to bring forward. No man could be more unfitted for the post for which he had been chosen. He knew nothing either of war or politics; he was idle, easy-going, and without enthusiasm, indifferent to any business more serious than hunting or horse racing.

In January 1659, the third protectorate parliament assembled. In the main it favored the new protector, but the army was

disappointed that one should be placed over it who »roti?torate' was no soldicr, and who did not feven belong to the gJ^^JJJ^^^ "godly kind." Fleetwood and Desborough, the one,

Eichard's brother-in-law, and the other, his uncle, proposed to take from the protector his military powers by making Fleetwood commander-in-chief. Richard demurred; the Com- mons sought to strengthen his opposition. But, when the officers came to him and offered him the choice of the support of the army or the parliament, he was forced to yield, and on April 22 dissolved his parliament, even before it had voted the usual supplies.

The dismissal of the third protectorate parliament was a fatal mistake. Richard was not strong enough to face the storm which Tiie Rump *^ attempt to levy taxes without parliamentary sanction oTth^pro^ would create. So a parliament of some kind must be uctorau. called, and in May the Rump, which Cromwell had so summarily driven out in 1653, was allowed to return to West- minster. Thus the revolution had begun to retrace its steps. Vane, Bradshaw, Scot, and Haselrig, ardent Republicans all, became at once the men of the hour. This undoubtedly was

886 THE BE8T0BATI0N [(

what the army wanted, for the old republican spirit, which Oliver had repressed with so much difficulty, was once more supreme among the soldiers. The Bump very naturally addressed itself to the restoration of the repubhc, and after making arrangements to pay the protector's debts, insisted that he lay down his office, and he, apparently nothing loath to be rid of an honor which had brought him only trouble and sleepless nights, left Whitehall on May 25, never to return. He retired into private life, too harmless to be molested in the several revolutions which followed, and died at last at a green old age in 1712.

While the Bump was thus winding up the afFairs of the protectorate in a bloodless counter revolution, the war which

represents Cromwell's foreign policy was coming to a gJ<J^fP<*^ successful close. In 1667, Cromwell had agreed to

send over six thousand of his Ironsides to join the French in an attack apon what was left of Spain's possessions in the Low Countries. Mardyke was soon taken and in 1658 the victory of the Dunes forced the surrender of Dunkirk, and the next year Spain made her peace with France by the Treaty of the Pyrenees. England received Dunkirk, and France, Boussillon and Artois, as the spoils of the war.

CHAPTEB VI

THE STUART RESTORATIOH*

THE COMMONWEALTH, 1659, tUO CHARLES n., 1660-1667

Long before the year 1G59 had run out, the hopelessness of attempting to continue the Commonwealth was generally The second ^PP^rent. An ill-advised attempt to remove Lam- firmp^l^cS^ bort and Desborough, revealed the slender platform her, 1669. upon which the new power of the Bump rested. Lam- bert simply marched his men down to Westminster, and turned the self-styled parliament out with even less ceremony than Cromwell had used in 1653. Lambert and Fleetwood then

1659, 1660] THB OONYENTIOK PABLIAMBKT 387

essayed to play over again the r6Ie of the Oreat Protector, Bat their authority was defied; their right to collect taxes denied; and at last even their own soldiers grew restless and disgusted with the farce. Then the leaders fell into an aimless wrangle among themselves, and finally in December, Fleetwood in sheer desperation again brought back the Bump.

In the meanwhile, disquieting rumors were reaching London from Scotland, where George Monk was in command, supported Monk re- ^y *^® ^^^ Commonwealth army of occupation. He ^ymaPw^ was a silcnt man, who knew how to keep his counsels; UamenL ^ simple soldler, neither politician nor fanatic, but shrewd enough to see what the outcome of so much indecision and weakness must be. He saw, moreover, what the coterie of politicians who still called themselves a parliament would not see, that only by a new parliament could the existing difficulties be settled. On January 1, 1660, therefore, he crossed the border and marched upon London. On February 16, he declared for a free and full parliament and compelled the Bump to call back the excluded members. The moderate party were thus again brought into power. They proceeded to appoint Monk com- mander-in-chiof of the army and Montague admiral of the navy, imprisoned Lambert and Vane, ordered the election of a new parliament, and then, March 16, 1660, voted their own dissolu- tion. Thus at last the Long Parliament, by its own act, was properly dismissed into history; and for the first time in twenty years the legal voters of England had an opportunity to express their opinions in a free general election.

The new parliament assembled on the 25th of April. It is known as the ''Convention Parliament because the writs had The twwem. ^^^ ^^^^ issued in the king's name and to that extent cSnre^rtJn were technically irregular. The Lords, with the Parliament, exception of the bishops, who had been legally excluded by statute, assembled in their old accustomed place. Here the cavalier spirit naturally ran high; but in the Commons, since the Malignants, or radical cavaliers, were still disqualified, the more conservative royalists, represented mostly by the Presbyterians and moderate Episcopalians, were in the majority. ^^

888 THB BESTORATIOK [

A declaration which Charles had issued from Breda early in the month, in which he proposed to leave the future adjustment of affairs to parliament, particularly appealed to this body, which, while it wished to get away from Cromwellianism, had no wish to see the principles of Laud or Strafford reinstated. In spite, therefore, of an attempted revolt by Lambert who had escaped from the Tower, in spite of the protests of Haselrig and Ludlow, in spite of the tracts of Milton who frantically urged upon the people the advantages of the republican form of government, in spite even of the efforts of Fairfax and Manchester who would hold Charles off until more definite pledges had been secured, the parliament declared that ^'according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the government is and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons," and invited Charles Stuart to assume the royal authority.

On the 28th of May, IGGO, his thirtieth birthday, Charles entered London. He is described as tall, dark, with prominent

features; not handsome, yet fascinating in manner andpoiuruof and brilliant in speech, abounding in patience and

good humor, and of marvelous tact. But under all this charming exterior he concealed a nature which was selfish, unscrupulous, deceitful, and capable of the grossest debauchery. Yet ho had been tutored to good purpose by the events of his chequered career, for he had developed a sagacity which was entirely new to the Stuart character. Whatever happened he was determined not to "set out on his travels again."

At his coronation Charles made Edward Hyde, his old tutor and the companion of his wanderings, earl of Clarendon and

advanced him to the position of chancellor. Monk €?charki1^ was made duke of Albemarie, and Charles's brother,

James duke of York, was made Lord High Admiral. James was a convert to Catholicism and as devoted to religion as the king was indifferent. With him was associated the Com- monwealth admiral, Montague, who was made earl of Sandwich. Anthony Ashley Cooper, another Commonwealth man, was made chancellor of the exchequer and raised to the peerage as Lord Ashley.

1660] THE GOKYEKTIOK PABLIAMENT 389

The Gonyention Parliament at once took up the business of adjusting the kingdom to the new order, proceeding upon lines suggested by the ** Declaration of Breda.*' An Act the Convention oi Indemnity and Oblivion, covering all offenses com- mitted since the outbreak of the Civil War, prepared for the proclamation of a general amnesty, from which only those were excluded who had brought the late king to his death. The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, Pride, and Bradshaw were taken from their graves and hung in chains from tall gibbets, while London roared with applause. Pym, Blake, who had died on the way home from Vera Cruz, the mother of Cromwell, and others were torn from their resting places at Westminster and thrown into a common pit. Then, having glutted their ghoulish vengeance on the dead, the avengers turned upon the living. Twenty-nine were held for trial. Harrison and nine others were condemned to death. Lambert and Vane, who were not regicides, were spared for the present. The marvel is that more did not suffer; but Charles took no delight in blood-shedding for its own sake. He was shrewd enough, moreover, to see that moderation would make him no enemies while an unseemly vindictiveness might.

A far more difficult question to settle was the disposal of claims to forfeited estates; the men who had restored Charles were in many cases the very men who had profited '^e^orfciUd most by the parliamentary forfeitures. In general no rule was established and the individual cavaliers were left to fight the matter out in the courts and get what redress they could.

The difficult task of paying off and dismissing the old Crom- wellian soldiers was entrusted to Monk. He performed his work The army of ^^ ^®^ ^^^^ ^^ * ^®^ short time the veterans of the t^SSidiS^ Commonwealth wars had returned to their old peace- banded. f,ji occupations. At first it was intended to disband all the regiments, but an outbreak of Fifth Monarchy enthusiasts, who by the violence and suddenness of their attack terrorized London for a few hours, impressed upon the government the importance of having a body of disciplined men within oalL

890 THE BESTOBATIOir [ofeUBUilL

Three regiments, therefore, in all about five thousand men, were retained. These regiments were Monk's own regiment, the famous ''Gold Stream Guards," a newly organized regiment known as ''The King's Horse Guards," and a third regiment stationed as a garrison at Dankirk. They were uniformed in the famous scarlet coat, which had already been worn by Gromweirs Ironsides in the French campaign. With the artillery they formed the nucleus out of which has developed the modem regular army of the British Empire. In order still further to remove all temptation to revolt, parliament directed the dis-. mantling of the walls and fortresses of all the inland towns of England. The walls of Oxford, York, and Chester, however, were spared for the sake of the loyalty of these cities to the late king. On December 29, 1660, Charles dissolved his first parliament, — his "healing and blessed parliament" as he called it; and on

May 8, his second parliament met. The royalist Parliament, reaction in the country had now progressed so far

that very few of the moderate men of the first parlia- ment had been returned. Instead, a body of bitter reactionaries came together, who were determined to take vengeance on their old enemies and ignore all the acts of the Long Parliament which had not been sanctioned by the formal assent of King, Lords, and Commons. Of the acts which had been passed before 1642 and had received the sanction of the king, only two were repealed; but the repeal of these two, the Triennial Act and the act which excluded the bishops from the House of Lords, laid the foundation of the second Stuart Despotism. Two other acts also revealed the drift of the new parliament. It was declared that the command of the militia lay in the hands of the king and, further, that even a defensive war against the king was unlawful.

So eager was the new parliament for vengeance, that the government could with difficulty persuade it to confirm the

various conciliatory measures of the last parliament. Sir Henry It was determined to have blood; and Lambert and

Vane were brought to trial on a charge of treason. Lambert escaped the death penalty, only to be imprisoned for life, but Vane was condemned to a traitor's death. That mms

1661, 1662] THE GLABEKDON CODE 891

Tictims did not suffer was due, not to the temper of parliament, but to Charles himself, who had no sympathy with what his over- ardent friends called "justice."

The burning question of the hour was still the old question of church settlement. Clarendon and his Cavalier Parliament

were determined to restore the Anglican system and mdtmcodi" ©D^bodied their purpose in a series of acts known as

the "Clarendon Code." Of these the "Corporation Act," passed in IGGl, required all local borough officials to receive the communion according to the rites of the church, take the oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and nonresistance, and renounce the Covenant; the "Act of Uniformity," passed in May 1662, required all beneficed clergy to use the Prayer-book, and further threatened to deprive of their livings all who, not having been ordained by a bishop, should fail to secure such ordination before the 24th of August following, — St. Barthol- omew's Day.

When the fatal day of August arrived, some two thousand men, rather than be faithless to conscience, turned their backs

upon their pleasant homes and went out, many of

Thefcunding * ^

o/ the body o^ them with families, to penury and actual want; for beyond a few months' salary no other relief was given. The two thousand clergymen included Presbyterians, Independ- ents, and Baptists, "probably the most zealous ministers of the gospel in England," henceforth to be merged in the great body of "Dissenters."

It was impossible, however, to keep such men from preaching or attempting to minister to those of their flock who clang to them in their misfortune. Yet even here the hostility ^^Tff^^'f^ZIL of the Cavalier Parliament followed them. The "Conventicle Act" of May 1664 declared that any meeting of more than five persons for religious worship in ways other than those prescribed by the church was an "illegal conventicle" ; the first offense to be punished by fine and imprison- ment, the second offense by a heavier fine and longer imprison- ment, and the third offense by a fine of £100, or transportation for seven years. The Conventicle Act was followed in October

B93 THE BESTOBATION [ghablmIL

1666 by the "Five Mile Act," which forbade the dissenting clergy- man to teach in any school, or to come within five miles of any corporate town or any place where he had once been pastor. The local magistrates, that is the cavalier sqnires, who were empowered to convict without a jury and condemn even to the sentence of transportation, administered the acts with cruel zeal. Thousands were cast into the filthy and unhealthy dens which passed for prisons, where the weak and the infirm quickly John Bun- succumbcd, and the strong came forth after a few "P«Sr^'8* months broken in body if not in spirit. John Banyan, Progress." the jriUage pastor of Bedford, passed eleven years in the village jail. It was during this period that he sent forth his "Pilgrim's Progress" to comfort and direct his fellows in persecu- tion on their way to the Celestial City. The lot of the Quakers was particularly hard. Some four hundred of them at one time lay in the London jails, and a thousand or more in the other prisons of the country.

Laud himself could hardly have done more. Yet there is this difference to be noted between the work of Laud and that of Clarendon. Laud aimed to make the church independ- Laudand ent of parliament, but the authors of the Restoration persecutions were interested rather in asserting the authority of the restored parliament over those elements of the nation which they justly regarded as responsible for the excesses of the Civil War. Although eager to restore the church as the buttress of Cavalierism, they had no desire to put the clergy back upon the pedestal from which the Puritans had once thrown them down. The very parliament which passed the Clarendon Code, in 1662 took from the Convocation the right of ecclesiastical taxation and vested it in the House of Commons, where clergymen were not allowed to sit; thus merging the last of the group of powers, which had constituted the dignity of the once great First Estate, in the fiscal and political powers of the body which had come to represent the common nation.

In Ireland the restoration of royal authority was a simple matter, but the confiict of cross interests made the final adjost- ment of claims and titles even more difficult than in Eng-

166MM6] IRELAND 893

land. The high-minded Ormond, the Lord Lieutenant, nobly wrestled with the problem. He dared not disturb the old Crom-

wellian soldiers, lest he rouse them to open revolt, and tianin bj the Act of Settlement, 1661, confirmed them in

their present possessions, as well as the English Adventurers who had settled under the pledge of Charles I. A new adjustment, four years later, evened matters up somewhat between the Grom wellian settlers and the royalists; the Catholic Irish population were left in possession of less than one-third of the island. An even more serious matter for Ireland was the dissolution of the union, an act which committed England to her later Irish policy, with all the vexing questions growing out of it, depriving Ireland of the benefit of the Navigation Act and preparing the way for a systematic and deliberate policy of fattening English farmers and merchants at the expense of Ireland. This policy began to bear fruit in 1G65 when the English parliament forbade the Irish to export to England either cattle, or meat, or butter, thus cutting off Ireland from the possibility of developing as a grazing country, for which both soil and climate specially adapted her. The restoration of the Irish parliament further prepared the seeds of future bitterness by placing the Celtic Catholic population at the mercy of laws made by the Protestant minority, who now held the great part of the lands of the island and controlled the local parliament. The Anglican Church, also, hated alike by Irish Presbyterian and Irish Catholic, was brought back to add still another element of discord and misery in the future. Tet in spite of the wrongs of the people, in spite of disturbances caused by ^'Bapparees" and *' Tories," for twenty-five years after the return of the Stuarts, the land was substantially at peace, and there was much prosperity for the Protestant settlers of the north, although little for the subject Celts of the south and west.

The Scots had never liked the Cromwellian union, partly because Cromwell had maintained it in a somewhat arbitrary way, and partly because the Scots were still by tradition sus- picious of the English. The abandonment of the union, there- fore, had followed at once upon the withdrawal of Monk's

^Mh

894 THE BE8T0BATI0K [<

anny, and Scotland again became a separate state, bound to England only by the possession of a common king. All acts passed subsequent to 1632 were swept away by the ** Rescissory Act." The bishops were restored, but without their powers or the fatal Liturgy of Laud. The royalists, however, were not willing to stop with mere reactionary legislation. To satisfy the cry for vengeance, Argyll was arrested in London and hurried back to be put to death upon the nominal charge of complicity in the death of Charles I. The Presbyterian clergy, who had protested against the promise of toleration given in the Declaration of Breda, found themselves like their English brethren compelled either to accept the hated Episcopacy or to &ce a life burdened with persecution or, at best, penury. All political power, both administrative and legislative, passed into the hands of a committee, nominated by the crown and composed of a set of men, among whom the ruffians, Middloton and Lauderdale, soon became conspicuous, whose native coarseness and oyer- bearing brutality were not improved by a habit of almost per- petual drunkenness. ''It was a mad, roaring time." Middleton and Lauderdale let loose their troopers to hunt down the Covenanters among the western hills and moorlands. The spirit of those Covenanters, however, was quite different from that of the inoffensive Quaker or even the nonconformist of the south. Persecution did not make them meek ; the preacher's cloak as often covered a sword or pistol as a Bible, and the stealthy gathering for prayer was more than once the prelude to a fierce battle with the king's men. The spirit of such men could not be broken, even when the Higlilanders were sent into their homes to dragoon them into submission.

The Restoration made little change in the foreign i)olicy of England as far as alliances were concerned, but its spirit was very ThcneMnra- ^ifforont. Clear-hoaded Englishmen, including Claren- dmi^r^iiy' ^^^ himself, already saw the menace to England of ofEniiiatuL ^Jjq growing power of France, but Charles saw only the immediate benefit which the support of the French monarchy promised him. In 1662 he married the Catholic princess, Catharine, who was a sister of the king of Portugal, the old ally

SOOniAHD AMD

1662-1667] SECOND DUTCH WAR 396

of France against Spain. Bombay and Tangier came to England as the price which Portugal paid for this alliance. The English were not pleased with the increase of their Catholic allies, and when, the same year, Charles parted with Dunkirk, the Great Protector's last acquisition, selling it to the French for £250,000, even the blindest of royalists felt some chagrin in comparing the subservient position assumed by his beloved king with that inde- pendent dignity which Cromwell had maintained in the face of other nations.

Charles had received popular support in an attack which the Convention Parliament had made upon the carrying trade of

Holland in renewing the old Navigation Act of the commercial Rump. Charles, also, was determined that his sister's Holland SCO- SOU should be restored to the Stadholdership, from war, 1665- which the Dutch Republicans, the brothers De Witt,

were keeping him. Old trade jealousies, too, hardly allayed by a treaty which Clarendon made in 1G62, burned as fiercely as ever. Hostilities soon began both in Africa and in America, wherever English and Dutch merchants or colonists came into contact. Clarendon struggled against the war spirit, but the merchant influence was too strong for him, and for two years the English and Dutch carried on a desperate contest on the seas. The English navy was paralyzed by mismanagement and knavery, and vast sums were squandered to no purpose. The heroes of the war on the English side were the veterans, Rupert and Albemarle; on the Dutch side, De Ruyter. The war closed with the peace of Breda, July 1667, leaving England in possession of Now Amsterdam, which had been taken by Admiral Holmes early in the war. It was rechristened New York in honor of the king's brother, the Lord High Admiral, and at once took a high place among the important English colonies in the new world. Charles's ally, Louis of France, had supported the Dutch in the war, first because the merchant oligarchy who ruled Holland and opposed the Prince of Orange, were French both in policy and in sympathy, and second because he did not wish to have his English protege grow so strong that he could not be controlled.

896 . THB BB8T0BATI0N [ghailhIL

While England was engaged in the Dutch war, there occurred one of those visitations, dways mysterious in an era when little was known of the simplest laws of sanitation, but to- Sck/ueTiiw. ^*y readily ascribed to the open sewers, lack of drainage, polluted water, and filthy tenements, the common features of life in a European city down to the present century. In the summer of 1665, it is estimated, over one hundred thousand persons perished in London; whole families were swept away ; business was abandoned and all who could, fled the city. In marked contrast with the conduct of the Episcopalian clergy, the Dissenting clergymen, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Independent, returned to the doomed city to minister to their old parishioners in their day of mourning. Some eyen preached from the vacant pulpits of the deserted city churches. When the terror had passed, and the skulkers returned, the only reward which parliament vouchsafed to the heroic men who had braved death in the performance of duty, was the "Five Mile Act."

London had hardly recovered from the paralysis which attended the plague, when there fell upon the city another calamity, which was in all probability a blessing in disguise and pre- Fire, Septem- vented the return of the pestilence. At two o'clock of the morning of September 2, 1666, a fire, the result of a mere accident, broke out in a bake shop in Pudding Lane; a violent gale was blowing, and the flames rapidly swept through the city. The flre raged for four days, burning eighty-nine churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral, and 13,200 honses, leaving two hundred thousand persons homeless, and subsiding only after four-fifths of Old London had been laid in ashes. Curiously enough the Catholics were charged with burning the city, and a monument was erected to commemorate the awful crime. The charge rested upon no evidence; the Dissenting ministers or the king might have been accused with equal justice. It shows how deeply the old enmity and suspicion, born of the sixteenth century, had eaten into the very blood of the nation. Hatred of Catholics was the birthright of the new generation of Englishmen.

1002-1667] FALL OF GLABEKDOK 397

Thns far Clarendon had in the main been responsible for the condnct of the Restoration goyemment. He was an able man of affairs and a loyal minister; bnt he was not a great j^c;iare». statesman nor a successful politician. The Presbyte- rians could never forgive him for the Clarendon Code; the royalists could not forget his honest adhesion to the Act of Indemnity. From Charles, however, he might reasonably expect a cordial support; his long tried friendship, his real service to the Stuarts in exile, his no less real service in organizing and establishing the restored government upon a solid basis, could not be ignored by a man who had any sense of personal honor. There was little, however, in common between the high-minded royalist, who drew his conceptions of duty and loyalty from the age of Elizabeth, and the dissolute and easy-going king of thirty. An _ , open breach between the king and his faithful minister tionofindui- had occurrod in December 1602, when the king, taking advantage of the adjournment of parliament, published a declaration softening somewhat the harshness of the recent Act of Uniformity by permitting individuals to violate the law without punishment. Charles had little sympathy with the humble Dissent- ers, but he hoped to protect the prominent Catholics of his court. When parliament met again, it at once compelled the king to with- draw his declaration. In this first serious quarrel between Charles and parliament. Clarendon took sides against the king and openly opposed him in the House of Lords. As long as Clarendon had the support of parliament, however, the king feared to interfere with his minister. But a late misfortune of the Dutch war, in which a Dutch fleet had entered the Medway and burned an English fleet at Chatham, the disgraceful sale of Dunkirk, for both of which Charles was to blame and not Clarendon, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, for which neither was to blame, turned the popular tide against the minister. Even the parlia- ment, royalist as it was, bad grown weary of a man who had declared that *'its power was more, or less, or nothing, as the king pleased to make it." When, therefore, on the 10th of October, 1667, Clarendon was impeached at the bar of the House of Lords as the scapegoat for the disasters of the Dutch war, he

898 BIBTH OF WHIG PARTY [oaabuiIL

stood alone. Of the twenty-one articles brought against him, no one was really serious ; and yet, knowing the men with whom he had to deal, he saw that his only safety lay in flight. On the continent he spent his last days in completing his celebrated work, *'The History of the Great Rebellion." He died in 1674. The fall of Clarendon marks the close of a distinct period in the reign of Charles II. Clarendon had sought to restore the kingship ; but to restore the old kingship of the Tudor period was no longer possit^e, for the king must henceforth govern in the presence of a parliament. At first this was not understood; the parliament was more loyal to the kingship idea than Charles himself. But ''the honeymoon of the Restoration was now over and only an uneasy wedlock remained"; the Cavalier Parliament had lost its ''impulsive loyalty," and soon degenerated into the parliament known by the less honorable, but no less merited, name of the "Pensionary Parliament," whoso loyalty could never be depended on by the king without a preliminary course of careful nursing and manipulation. The king on his part shaped his policy more and more definitely towards the restoration of the Catholic Church, while the parliament rallied what little sense of self-respect remained, to defy him and impeach his ministers.

CHAPTER VII

THE BIRTH OF THE WHIG PARTY CHARLES IL, 1667 16S5

After the fall of Clarendon, Charles undertook for a time to be his own chief minister. He found the council, however, too

unwieldy for easy manipnlation, and dropped into a '^''Cahair habit of Consulting informally a group of special

favorites before submitting matters of importance to the larger body. Five men enjoyed this special confidence: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. When arrayed in this order, the initial letters spelled the unfortunate word "Cabal," which was at once fastened upon the

16684670] 8E0BET TREATY OF DOYEB 399

janto as appropriately descriptive of tbeir aims and underhand methods.

Soon after the Cabal came into power, Louis XIV. began to push forward his ambitious scheme of enlarging France at the

expense of those territories of Spain, Lorraine, and the Alliance Empire, which lay between him and the Rhine. He

found a plausible pretext for seizing the Spanish Netherlands in the plea that these lands, in consequence of the death of Philip IV. of Spain, had ** devolved" upon his daughter, the French queen, to the exclusion of her younger brother, the sickly Spanish king, also a Charles II. In the war which followed, known as the "War of Devolution," the French easily overran Flanders. The Dutch, however, had no desire to see the powerful French monarchy advance to their very doors, and in 1068, through the offices of Sir William Temple, succeeded in securing an alliance with England and Sweden against the further aggressions of France. The menace was sufficient; by the Treaty of Aachen, 1068, Louis, gracefully restoring a great part of the territories which he had seized, ostensibly yielded his claims upon the Spanish Netherlands. Yet Louis had changed, not his purpose, but only his method of attack. He saw that before he could seize the Spanish Netherlands he must first

crush Holland. He was, moreover, greatly favored

The secret > o .^

Treaty of by the drift of events in England, where parliament not only refused to pass laws in accordance with the king's wish to secure general toleration, but in 1670 reenacted the Conventicle Act. Charles, in despair of securing toleration for Catholics by constitutional measures, after a secret consulta- tion with the duke of York, Arundel, and Clifford and Arlington, the two Catholic members of the Cabal, determined to appeal to Louis. Here was Louis's opportunity, and he quickly took advantage of it. In June 1670 the two powers signed the secret Treaty of Dover, in which Charles agreed to unite with Louis in making war upon the Dutch, and also to declare himself a Catholic, *'as soon as the affairs of his kingdom should permit." Louis on his part was to support Charles with a liberal subsidy and send French troops into England if needed. Ashley had

400 BIBTH OF WHIG PARTY [cttABLnO.

Tigorously supported the king in his efforts to secure toleration, and in reward was made earl of Shaftesbury, and before the year was out, Lord Chancellor. Two days before the Declaration, the English Admiral Holmes attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet which, unsuspicious of danger, was leisurely pursuing its way up the Channel, and on March 28, war was declared. The Dutch were taken by surprise; and the French easily overran the southern

provinces. But when they reached the sea provinces, of Eiwiand Dc Witt, the Grand Pensioner, cut the dikes and by ufKmt/Mj floodinir the country forced the French to withdraw.

The people, however, believed that De Witt and his brother, who had been heretofore pronounced in their French sympathies, were responsible for the war and its miseries. Blots broke out in the cities; De Witt was torn to pieces by a furious mob; the government of merchant princes which had ruled the country for twenty-two years was overthrown and the Stad- holderate restored.

The new Stadholder was William, Prince of Orange. On his father's side, he was a great-grandson of the famous William the

Silent; on his mother's side, he was a grandson of ^omnge, Charles I. of England, and, since Charles II. had no

legitimate children, after the children of James duke of York, was the heir to the English throne. He is described as a sickly, thoughtful young man of twenty-two; cold, unat- tractive, and distant in manner, but a daring statesman and capable of devising and carrying out the greatest political com- binations. Some of his countrymen were for giving up the struggle with France altogether, and putting their families and their wealth on board their ships, migrating as a nation to their possessions in Java. But William had no thought of turning his back upon the dreary little land which his fathers had won from the Spaniard; sooner than yield, he declared to Buckingham, he would die on the last dike.

While the French found themselves thus baffled on the land, the English were not rendering them much assistance on the seas. Charles was fully aware of the dangerous nature of hia contract with Louis and carefully kept the secret from the nou^

1672, 1678] STOP OF THE EXCHEQUER 401

Catholic members of the Cabal, tricking them with a sham treaty, which was published in 1072 as the real Treaty of Dover.

At the opening of 1072, Louis and Charles were ready to carry out their joint plot against the Netherlands and against the laws of England. Parliament had not been in session carry f nit for ten months and although it had provided liberally Treaty of for the English fleet before adjournment, additional funds were necessary for the meditated attack upon Ilolland. At Clifford's suggestion Charles adopted an expedient, called **the Stop of the Exchequer," which Colbert, Louis's great finance minister, had recently used with success. The plan was to fatten the treasury by the simple expedient of not paying out the interest due upon loans which the goldsmiths, the bankers of the era, had lent to the government on the security of the revenues. The effect upon public credit, however, was so disastrous, that two days later Charles had to promise that at least one-half of the accrued interest should be paid. Neverthe- less, the "locking of the Exchequer" left in the treasury about £1,300,000 for present need.

On March 15, Charles undertook a still more unpopular measure, in issuing a second Declaration of Indulgence. In June 1672, the duke of York had barely held his own against uuwan^^ De Ruyter in South wold Bay on the coast of Suffolk. In 1073 the Dutch retook New York and renamed it after their heroic Stadholder, New Orange. In August they won a substantial victory off the Texel. "

At the opening of 1673 the English parliament assembled after a recess of twenty-two months. It found its work very definitely cut out. The old anti-Catholic feeling was thoroughly aroused, and the members began an attack both upon the Declaration of Indulgence and upon the Dutch war. Charles saw that it was useless to persist; the Protestant members of the Cabal, especially Shaftesbury, who had by this time got some inkling of the real nature of the league with Louis, urged the recall of the offensive proclamation, and on March 8, it was withdrawn.

Parliament, however, had no thought of stopping simply with the withdrawal of the Declaration. The people were furious, and

402 BIBTH OF WHIG PABTY [<

parliament determined to strike back at the king and hig Catholic ministers by passing a ^'Test Act," which provided that all per- The **TeH ^^^^ holding any office nnder the crown, mnst at once uufcSiof ^^^^ ^^ oaths of allegiance and supremacy, publicly uu cdbaL receive the sacrament according to the Anglican custom, and disavow transubstantiation. The act effectually put an end to the influence of the Cabal. The Catholic members were forced to withdraw. Shaftesbury, who had supported the Test Act, was dismissed in November. Buckingham was dismissed later but not for political reasons. The duke of York, also, who in 1669 had publicly announced his conversion to the Catholic faith, was debarred by the Test Act and was forced to resign the position of Lord High Admiral. This was the most signal triumph of the opposition. The next step was to put a stop to the Dutch war, and in 1674 they compelled Charles to withdraw from the French alliance and accept the Peace of Westminster.

Louis's plans were working out on the continent with hardly better success. Instead of having Holland at his mercy, he had

found himself confronted by a powerful coalition, French^ made up of Holland, Brandenburg, Spain, and the

Empire, with the possibility that it would soon be joined by his late allies. This coalition was the work of the new Stadholder, who had devoted all his splendid powers to arousing Europe against French ascendency. He had not been successful in war, however, and despite his heroic efforts the French continued to win victories. Louis might yet succeed, if he could only keep the English from actively joining the league against him. In order to secure Charles, therefore, he made with him a new secret treaty in which he agreed to pay the English king £100,000 a year on condition that he make no engagement with any foreign power without his consent. The danger, however, was still very great, that the anti-French senti- ment of parliament would force Charles to begin war, in spite of his promises or the bribes which he had taken. In 1677 an English army was actually assembled to be used against France, and in November, Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby, secured the marriage of Mary, the eldest daughter of the duke of York, to

1878-ie7Sj DAVBT 403

Louisas arch enemy, William, the Stadholder. Louis saw, there- fore, that it was usdess to seek longer to control the foreign policy of England, and in 1G78 succeeded in securing the Treaty of Nimwegen, which put an end to the war hut left in his hands Franche-Comte and twelve of the cities of the Spanish Nether- lands, including Camhrai and Ypres.

Danby, who had succeeded to the position of influence once held by the Cabal, had now been in power five years. He had

managed to keep his place by the cleverest time-serving, j^mby in jje had, moreover, coolly adopted bribery as a regular

means of encouraging a reluctant parliament, and had managed to gather to his support a considerable party, very respectable in numbers if not in character, known as the '* Court Party," whose ostensible platform was the support of the Church of England, the strengthening of the royal prerogative, and a friendly attitude toward the Dutch. There was little sincerity, however, in their pretensions ; and their leader did not hesitate to use his alleged friendship for the Dutch as a means of black- mailing Louis, even acting as Charles's agent in negotiating the The "Court secret treaties of this era. The Court Party, however, m^'^oun^ were by no means left to have their own way, or to try Party.*' gecurc all the plunder for themselves. There had been no general election since 1G61, but the change in the temper of the country had been reflected somewhat by a corresponding change in the temper of many members of the Cavalier Parlia- ment; vacancies, also, had occurred from time to time and new members had been returned who represented even more directly the changing sentiment of the people. The struggle over the Declaration of Indulgence and the Test Act, moreover, had given to the opposition some coherence, revealed to the leaders their strength, and furnished them with a definite platform. In dis- tinction from the Court Party they were called the "Country Party."

The first serious tilt of the Country Party with the govern- ment occurred in 1675. Danby thought to get rid of the men in parliament whom he could not reach by his "system of influence" by securing a sort of political Test Act, known as the "Place-

404 BIRTH OF WHIG PA3TY [

men's'' or ^^Nonresistance Bill," which proposed to require every ofiScer in church or state, and every member of parliament, to

m-2fo,^ d^cl*r« ^P^^ ""^^^^ ^^^ it ^^ unlawful to take up aH?'\2SiL *^^8 i^ ^^^ king's name against the king's person or ^^ those commissioned by the king, and that "he would

not at any time endeavor the alteration of the government in church or state." The bill was defeated largely by the efforts of Shaftesbury, who upon retiring from the conncil had taken his place in the House of Lords, and putting all his abilities of debate and intrigue at the service of the Country Party, had managed to get the two Houses embroiled over a question of privilege, and raise such a storm that Charles was obliged to prorogue parliament before the bill was put to a final vote.

In November, four months later, parliament again came together; but the quarrel was renewed as bitterly as ever, and Charles quickly adjourned the House, this time for ^<«ojf«« fifteen months. The agitation outside of parliament, however, still continued. The chief centers of dis- turbance were the coffee houses; an institution which had come in with the introduction of the new beverage from Turkey. In December, Charles attempted to close these places on the ground that they encouraged "false, malicious, and scandalous reports." But the attempt raised such an uproar that the proclamation was hastily withdrawn. When parliament assembled again in 1677, the Country Party, believing that their strength would be greatly increased by a new general election , attempted to force a dissoln- tion, but the leaders only got into the Tower for their pains. Charles was evidently fast losing control of his Long Parliament; yet Louis did not want a new parliament, for he well knew that in the present temper of the country, its first act would be to declare war against France. Charles did not want a new parliament, for he was equally certain that a new House of Commons would at once begin a vigorous attack upon the Catholics. Hence Louis bribed freely and Charles was perfectly willing to take his money.

At this stage of the quarrel a new weapon was suddenly put into Shaftesbury's hands. In August, 1078, Titus Oates, a clerical adventurer, who had been first Separatist, then Anglican,

1678, 1679] TiruS GATES 405

and finally a pretended conyert to Catholicism, came forward with a most astonishing story of a Catholic plot, in which Charles was ^ „ to be mnrdered and the duke of York made king,

piotofTUus London was to be burned, the Protestants butchered,

OcUcs

and the old faith established by French soldiers. The story carried its refutation in its very extrayagance ; but in the excited condition of the popular mind, men were ready to believe anything. Other knavish informers as Bedloe and Dangerfield also took advantage of the general panic, and joined Oates in the profitable trade of swearing away the lives of Catholics ; the jails were filled with suspects; judges browbeat juries into giving verdicts, and a number of victims were sent to the gallows.

When parliament met in October the excitement was still at its height, and Shaftesbury cunningly seized the moment to secure the passage of a ''Parliamentary Test Act," Danby!^ which excluded "Papists" from both Houses of parlia- ment. The duke of York was excepted on his own motion, but only by two votes. Five Catholic lords, also, were sent to the Tower. The opposition then turned upon Danby, and in December, impeached him upon evidence of a letter furnished by the French king himself, who hated Danby and regarded him as his enemy. In this letter, acting under the direction of Charles, Danby had instructed the English ambassador to ask for money for his master. Charles was eager to save Danby and also to prevent inquiry, which might lead to anything but pleas- ant results for himself, and finding that only a dissolution would do it , dissolved the Cavalier Parliament on the 24th of January, 1679. The apprehensions of Charles and Louis were now fully realized. When the new parliament came together in March, out of nearly five hundred members, there were not thirty parliament ^who could be depended on to support the king. It ' 'was well known that beside the attack upon Danby, there would be a direct attack upon the king's brother and an effort made to exclude him from the succession. This to Charles was now the all-important issue, and to save his brother, he determined to yield upon all minor points, in hope of disarming his enemies by conciliation.

406 BIRTH OF WHIG PABTT [

The impeachment of Danby was therefore permitted to be resumed, and although the speedy dissolution of the third parlia- ment prevented the trial from running its coarse, it ^anbi/'» lasted long enough to establish several new principles of grave importance from a constitutional point of view. First, it was determined that bishops might sit in the House of Lords during a trial which involved the death sentence, but might not remain when the time came for passing the sentence; second, that an impeachment might be carried over a dissolution. But third and most important, it was determined that a direct order of the king might not be pleaded as a valid defense, thus establishing the individual responsibility of the minister to parliament under the law. Fourth, when Danby, pushed to the wall, finally produced a royal pardon, this also was swept away, both Houses declaring that a pardon could not stop an impeachment. The trial, however, was never completed. The dissolution in May left Danby in the Tower, where he remained until 1684, when Charles released him on bail.

In the second point also Charles bowed to the overwhelming majority of the Country Party. He allowed them to attempt a TcmpU'8 government, not of their own, but in their own way. a!mu^(ina ^^^ P^^^ ^^ Suggested by Sir William Temple, who thecounco. had returned from his brilliant career as minister to the Netherlands, to throw all his influence with the Country Party. The new council as organized included fifteen great officers of state and fifteen gentlemen of independent fortunes. Their wealth was to place them beyond the temptation of petty bribery, their personal influence and dignity were to save them from the petty clamors and attacks of the Commons.

The third important point upon which Charles yielded was the famous "Habeas Corpus Act." This important act was particularly the work of Shaftesbury and was long Corpus Actr known as the "Shaftesbury Act." By it the various' subterfuges by which the crown officers were accustomed to hinder the getting of a writ of habeas corpus were forbidden under severe penalties, and jailers wore enjoined to obey the writ &t once. Charles did not like the act, but he was desperately in

1679] THE EXCLUSION BILL 407

need of popularity, and gave his consent in hope of atoning somewhat in the popular eyes for his former misdeeds.

The compliance of Charles in those less important matters,

however, did not save him from being compelled to face the

attack upon his brother. On the 21st of May. 1679,

The "iSarcZt*- ,/ » »

sum Biiw the Commons pnshed to a second reading an ' 'Exclusion Bill," designed ''to disable the duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England." The second reading was carried by a majority of 79 votes, and five days later Charles dismissed his third parliament.

Shaftesbury, who though President of Temple's Council, was not in the confidence of the king, was furious. He swore that Charleses ^® would havc the head of the man who had advised pcfSiuai dissolution; yet when the results of the elections were adjfmmment. known, it was found that the fourth parliament was going to be even harder to handle than the one which Charles had just dismissed. Charles did not dare to allow them to assemble at all, and by a series of postponements managed to fight off the issue for a whole year.

In October 1G79, Shaftesbury was again dismissed from the ministry. Without a government position, and without a parliament, for parliament was not then in session, he iTHfofthe fell back upon the tactics of Pym in 1640, and inspired a series of petitions which began to pour into London from all parts of the country, entreating the king to assemble the parliament in order to transact the business of the kingdom. The Court Party, also, were not idle, and counter assemblies were held and counter addresses sent up to London, "abhorring unseemly interference" with the prerogative of the king to assemble parliaments when he would. Thus arose the names which the two parties now assumed, "Petitioners" and "Abhor- rers," soon to give way to the better known "Whigs" and "Tories." The later names were at first nicknames, which ardent orators flung at each other in the heat of debate or public denunciation. The word "Whig," or "Whigamore," was the name by which the bitter Covenanters, the sour-faced bigots of southwestern Scotland, were known; while the name "Tories"

408 BIBTH OF WHIG PABTY [oubimII

associated the defenders of Jameses rights with the Irish brigands, who infested the wild regions of Ireland and terrorized their Prot- estant rulers by their midnight burnings and murders. The names were new, but the parties had existed since the fall of Clarendon. Lauderdale, true to his later associations in the Cabal, had so changed the earlier attitude of the Bestoration government in The Scots Scotland that in 1669 he allowed the Covenanting ^Biack In- ^i^^^^s to retum to their posts under a special duiocncer Declaration of Indulgence from the king. But the hard-headed Covenanters of the western Lowlands did not like the Scotch Declaration any better than their English brethren liked its southern fellow; they called it the '* Black Indulgence," and refused to give up their "field conventicles." The govern- ment first tried to suppress the illegal meetings through the courts, but failing in this, in 1677, sent John Graham of Claver- house into the Clyde valley with a band of 8,000 Highlanders to see what could be done by the more direct methods of martial law. Claverhouse's methods, however, instead of repressing the people only goaded them to madness and when, on June 3, 1679,

he was defeated by an armed congregation which he ntonrewll*^ had attempted to disperse at Drumclog, it was the

signal for a general rising of the people of the western hills. Just one month before, James Sharp, the archbishop of St. Andrews, who was the chief representative in Scotland of the hated prelacy of the south, had been murdered on Magus Moor by a fanatical band of Covenanters. The government, therefore, was not in a gentle mood and determined to crush the rebels without mercy. Assistance was asked from England and a force of fifteen thousand men was sent over the border in response.

Shaftesbury at the time was still a member of the council and had used his influence to secure the command of the army for

James, duke of Monmouth, an illes^itimato son of ofMimnuMh, Charles, a dissolute, reckless youne: man, but with Brigg, June many of his father s winning ways ; he was politically

a Protestant, and thus in favor with the Country Party, who were beginning to regard him as a possible successor of Charles. Monmouth put down the rebellion with brilliant

1680] DEFEAT OF EXOLUSIOK BILL 409

success, defeating the insnrgents at Bothwell Brigg, and at once became widely popular at home; even in Scotland he won many friends.

The increased popularity of Monmouth showed Charles that he had made a mistake in sending him into Scotland. He there- fore got him out of the country as soon as possible gJ^V^^W'Hy and sent the duke of York to take his place. But this was only mending one blunder by committing a greater blunder. James set to work at once in his own fashion to end Covenanting, giving to Scottish history the era which northern historians have grimly named the "killing time." The Covenanters, however, did not blanch in the presence of torture or execution. In 1680 Eichard Cameron, their warlike preacher- leader, who had been prominent in the earlier days of trial, returned and devoted his fiery eloquence to rousing the people against the oppressor. In the famous '*Sanquhair Declaration," which he issued in June 1680, he proclaimed that the "perjury and breach of the Covenant" by Charles and James had absolved Scotsmen from all bonds of allegiance. Cameron was finally surprised and slain, and his armed retinue dispersed; but his fiery denunciation of the Stuarts was not forgotten by those who heard him, and was to bear fruit later.

On October 21, 1680, the fourth parliament of Charles 11. was at last allowed to assemble. The Commons, however, would The fourth have nothing but the Exclusion Bill and carried it Charles 11. almost unanimonslv. But the Lords rejected the bill

and the Ex- , . i. ^« . «^

elwfionBUL by a VOtC 01 63 to 30.

This victory for the king was the result of a great speech by Hal- ifax, who upon the breaking up of Temple's Council had retained Halifax and ^^® chief place in the confidence of the king. While thl Ex^u-^^ admitting the motive of the bill, he had presented to tnan BUI the Lords the cause of Mary and her able husband; set- ting forth that they were both of them Protestants and far more closely identified with the cause of Protestant resistance to Catholic aggression than the dissolute duke of Monmouth; that at best vhe reign of James would be short, and then the crown might pass to William and Mary without doing violence to the cause of

410 BIRTH OF WHIG PABTT [chabuiIL

legitimate succession. The Commons were not pleased; they demanded the expulsion of Halifax from the ministry^ refused to vote any supplies to the crown, and attempted to fasten the Great Fire of London upon the Catholics. Their storming, however, frightened no one ; Halifax had effectually divided the councils of the enemies of James and broken the solid front of the Whigs. The tide was already turning, and when Lord Stafford was sent to the block, the last victim of the Gates panic, the crowds at the execution openly expressed their belief in his innocence. On the 10th of January Charles adjourned parliament and on the 18th finally dissolved it.

In March, Charles made one more attempt to reach a com- promise, and summoned a parliament at Gxford where the royal influence was far stronger than at London. But when liamentof he found that the Whig majority were as belligerent as March '* ever and determined to push through ttie Exclusion Bill at whatever cost, after seven days he dissolved this his fifth and last parliament.

The position of Charles at this time has been compared to that of his father in 1G20; but in reality there is very little resem- The ^'Second ^ance, save in the despotic character of the next and anmr''^^^' ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ reign, which is known as the Second 16811685. Stuart Tyranny. Charles first issued a declaration in which he attempted to justify his recent acts, and then proceeded to marshal the courts to punish his discomfited foes. In July, Shaftesbury was arrested and thrown into the Tower, but the sheriff of Middlesex was careful to secure a Whig Grand |Jury, and when the case was presented in November, the Grand Jury refused to bring in an indictment. While Shaftesbury was in prison, vainly calling for the privilege assured him by his own Habeas Corpus Act, Dryden, the courtier-poet of the Restoration, brought out his '* Absalom and Achitophel," in which he painted Shaftesburv', the Achitophel, as a monster of cnift, deceit, and audacious cunning, while Monmouth, his Absalom, is the head- less dupe, whom the unscrupulous intriguer leads astray. As long as the Whigs ruled in the city, Shaftesbury was safe, but in 1681 the court by underhand means secured the election of a Tory

1682, 1683] THE RYE HOUSE PLOT 411

mayor, and followed this in 1682 by the appointment of Tory sheriffs. Shaftesbary saw that London was no longer safe, and made good his escape to Holland, where he died in the following January.

Before his departure from London, Shaftesbury had planned an insurrection in Monmouth's favor. But Monmouth did not receive the encouragement in ihe west which was H^nisePiot, expoctod, and the other conspirators failed to act at the last moment; Monmouth was arrested and the scheme collapsed. But the next summer, certain overzealous Whigs planned to assassinate Charles and James as they returned to London from the summer races at Newmarket, at a place known as the "Eye House," near Hadesdon in Hertfordshire. The princes, however, returned a day sooner than the plotters had expected and thus the plot failed. It was the work of a group of obscure Whigs, but it was so mixed up with the last conspiracy of Shaftesbury that many nobler men were easily implicated by the excited Tories and their lives sacrificed. Among them was Lord William Eussell, the early leader of the Country Party in the Commons, the son of the earl of Bedford, a man of blameless character and lamented even by his foes; Algernon Sidney, also, who still clung to the old ideas of the Commonwealth. Monmouth was arrested, but his father's love for him saved him; he was allowed to make a confession and retire to Holland.

While the royal judges were hunting the enemies of the king to earth, Charles was turning his attention to securing a Tory Attack of parliament, upon which he might call when Louis's uumi^uie subsidies should cease. Judge Saunders, a justice of charura, the Jeffreys type, proposed to Charles to recall the charters of the corporations by a writ quo warranto^ and to restore them agaili with Tory boards. In 1683, accordingly, proceedings were begun against London and followed up by attacks upon every Whig stronghold of the kingdom. Even places like Leeds, which sent no delegate to parliament, and the distant American colonies, which could hardly exercise any influence at all upon the political atmosphere of England, were compelled to give up their charters.

412 BIBTH OF WHIG PABTY [quumB.

80 thorough and far-reaching were Charles's plans and so deter- mined was he to scotch the Whig serpent. In returning the Toryized charters, Charles further reserved the right of confirming the elections of municipal officers, and even of naming the officers, if the elections were not satisfactory.

Charles was now as absolute as a king could be who held his crown under the forms of law. Yet he could not discard altogether the theory of constitutional restrictions. Even Jeffreys, who boasted that he had made all the charters '^like the walls of Jericho fall down flat," had, in spoiling the cities of their time-honored privileges, resorted to the forms of law. But although in theory a constitutional monarch still, Charles, like the Tudors, had reached a point where he need not be over- scrupulous. The Triennial Act of 1641 had been repealed, but the Second Triennial Act, 1664, had again prescribed that more than three years should not mtervene between parliaments. Charles, however, had no thought of burdening himself even with a Tory parliament until it was actually necessary, and directly violated the law by neglecting to call a parliament in 1684. So too, Danby, who during these years of trouble had been almost forgotten in the Tower, Charles released, and in open defiance of the Test Act recalled his brother to the council and once more established him as Lord High Admiral.

At the opening of the year 1685, Charles was approaching his fifty-fifth birthday. He was never more popular among his Death of people. He had won in the long struggle with the F?^;^^- W^ig reaction and could afford to enjoy his triumph. 6,1686. His court was never more gay; its revels never madder,

nor more profane, nor more dissolute. Never had the fear of God been more completely banished from '*the glorious gallery of Whitehall." The king was in the best of health, hale and hearty at fifty-five, when on February 2 he was suddenly smitten with apoplexy and died four days later, with his last breath con- fessing his secret allegiance to the faith of the Catholic Church.

Charles narrowly missed being a great king. Under a veil of indifference and frivolity he concealed a consummate talent for intrigue and a calculating cynicism, a shrewd ability to read men

1685] BUGGESBIOK OF JAMES n. 413

and nse them, baffling his enemies and surprising his friends. His coohiess and perfect self-control, his conrage in the presence

of dangers where his greatest statesmen lost their heads, cnSZ^^ ^8 strength of pnrpose, were as marked as his final

triumph was brilliant and overwhelming. Yet with all his ability, of sense of honor, of personal principle, he knew nothing. Had he possessed with his ability any corresponding moral sense, he might have made one of the greatest kings that England has ever honored with her crown.

CHAPTER Vin

THE WHIG REVOLUTIOK JAMES IT., tess-ien

The reign of James II. began nnder fairly favorable auspices. James was not altogether unpopular, although many still regarded

his accession to the throne as a national ^calamity. Jametii^^ The widely accepted doctrines of "divine right" and

''nonresistance" had apparently forestalled reaction, and there was no reason, in existing conditions at least, why James II. should not round out the full number of his years as

king of England. Soon after his brother's death he i>€ninninQ met the Privy Council and pledged himself to *'pre-

serve the government in both church and state as then by law established." Halifax thanked the king in the name of the council, and the council published the speech as a royal proclamation. Even London received the word in good faith; the people felt that they had misunderstood the prince, and had been too quick to listen to the base maligning of his enemies. So great was the loyal enthusiasm of the hour that the people looked on with indifference while Titus Oates and his accomplices, Dangerfield and Bedloe, were fined, publicly lashed into unconsciousness, and imprisoned for life. In May, parlia-

414 THE WHIG BEYOLUTION [jAOsa

ment gave definite expression to the prevailing loyal sentiment by voting to the new king for life a grant of £1,900,000 per annam. The crime of treason was extended to embrace any attempt to change the natural law of succession. A petition asking for the enforcement of the laws against nonconformists, also, was thrown out, and even Shaftesbury's Habeas Corpus Act was probably saved only by the landing of Monmouth, which caused an immediate adjournment.

The troubles of the new reign began first in Scotland. A band of Whig exiles had infested the Dutch court, and the Beginning of Stadhplder, uot Unwilling to show Ms good will jame^a^^ towards his father-in-law, compelled the exiles to leave reign. Holland. They gathered at Brussels, and here deyised

a mad scheme to raise Scotland and England in the name of Monmouth as the rightful heir of Charles II. Argyll, son of the Covenanting Argyll who had been put to death at the Restoration, attempted first to raise his clansmen, the Campbells, but the leaders were so dilatory and the deputies of James so prompt and energetic that Argyll's band was dispersed and he himself made a prisoner before the insurrection was on its feet. He was executed at Edinburgh on the 30th of June. The other leaders who accompanied him, among them Rumbold, an old Common- wealth man, prominent among the real authors of tlie Rye House plot, sullcred the same fate.

On the 11th of June, six days after the capture of Argyll, the second of these ill-managed and ill-fated expeditions, led by Monmouth in person, landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire. Miminmuli, His ranks were soon swelled by the clothiers of Somer- set, the miners of the Mendip Hills, and the simple folk of the country side, but the supply of arms which he had brought with him was soon exhausted, and pitchforks, flails, and scythes, the peaceful implements of husbandry, had to do duty for pike and gun. The nobility and the gentry held aloof. They had little faith in Monmouth's claim to be a legal son of the dead king; they were also more intelligent, and foresaw what must happen as soon as the rabble which followed *'King Monmouth,'* should come face to face with the king's regulars.

1685] SEDGEMOOB 415

The plan of Monmouth was to push on to Cheshire, where he was assured of support. But at Philip 's-Norton, he was turned back by the king^s troops, and compelled to July 5. (?, * retire upon Bridgewater. He was closely followed by the royal army under command of Louis Duras, earl of Feversham, and John Churchill. Monmouth knew that as he could not advance, he must fight at once, and on the night of July 5, determined to take advantage of a dense fog which had settled down over the half reclaimed marshes of the Sedgemoor fiats, and make a desperate attempt to surprise Feversham and Churchill as they lay in their camps. His plans went fairly well until the moment when his men were rushing upon the foe, when a broad canal, filled with black water to the brim, suddenly revealed itself in the darkness, stretching along the whole front and effectually preventing any further progress. Monmouth's cavalry turned and fled, but the infantry stood their ground and delivered their feeble fire at the regulars across the moat, who rallied behind its safe cover and soon began to return the fire with deadly precision. Still the raw farm lads held their own until Feversham brought up his artillery. Then they broke and fied. Monmouth, who had early left the field, was taken a few days later in the New Forest and brought to London. Parlia- ment had already passed an act of attainder, so that there was no obstacle in the way of an immediate execution. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, July 15.

After the battle Kirke, the colonel of the Tangier regiment, who had learned his trade in warring with Moslems, had suc- *'Kirhe'8 cccded Fovcrsham to the command, and let loose his the^'Bioffdf ** Lambs" upon the peasants of the west, following the Assizer 16S5. fugitives to their homes and hanging them, without form of trial, over their own door steps. James, however, was not satisfied, and sent out a commission of five judges, headed by the terrible Jeffreys, to finish Kirke's work. The circuit was long known as the "Bloody Assize." More than 300 were hanged, and upwards of 800 more deported and sold as slaves to the planters in the Barbadoes and Jamaica. When Jeffreys returned, as a reward for his work, he was made Lord Chancellor.

416 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [jammbTL

The inflnence of these successes upon the king's mind ma soon eyidoDt. The nation was now apparently all Tory. The doctrine of nonresistance had become the accepted political tenet, not of a party, but of the English people. James knew, also, that in an emergency he might, like his brother, depend upon the support of the French king, who had already sent him, as an earnest of his good will, a dole of £67,000. His obstinacy and intolerance of opposition, which were always marked traits, increased accordingly; nor was it long before he had definitely framed a policy of aggression towards the laws and the ecclesiastical establishment of England, belying his recent fair words, and putting the nonresistance principles of his staunchest Toiy friends to the test.

During the summer, while Jeffreys was browbeating terrified witnesses and bullying frightened juries into giving their consent Therevocor ^ ^^® burning of old women and the hanging of Edicfof^^ simple peasant folk, the spirit of passive endurance Nantes, JS85, which had of late taken possession of the nation, received a yet more disquieting shock from the progress of events across the Channel. Since the time of Henry IV. the Protestants of France had rested securely under the protecting shadow of the Edict of Nantes. But in the summer of 1685, Louis XIV. saw fit, not only to recall this Edict, but actively to enter the lists against the newly outlawed Huguenots, and summoned all the machinery of the state to crush religious dissent. ^fwUrndL^ Soon troops of refugees began to reach England and the story of their wrongs quickened the latent distrust which, in spite of the prevailing Tory doctrines, Englishmen had always felt for their Catholic king. They did not stop to make distinctions, but confounded the tyranny of the French king with the faith which was still proscribed in England by the accumulated laws and traditions of a century.

WTien the parliament, which had given such evidence of its loyalty in the spring, assembled in November, its temper had perceptibly changed. James asked for the repeal of the Test Act and for an increase in the standing army, but met with a peremptory refusal. Under similar circumstances his prede*

1685, 1686] THE TEST ACT AND THE COUBTS 417

cessor would have quietly dropped the matter and waited for the present reyulsion of feeling to pass away. But James prorogued

parliament, and invoked the law courts to assist him Act and in Overthrowing the Test Act. He had already given

his confidence to four men who were in full sym- pathy with his motives and had had more influence with him than his councillors of state. These men were Bichard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnel, Henry Jermyn, Edward Petre, a Jesuit, and Robert Spencer, earl of Sunderland, a cold-hearted, corrupt man, who believed in nothing but himself. It was by the advice of these men that James proceeded to attack the Test Act through his dispensing power, looking to the subservient judges of the King^s Court to give his position the sanction of law. A friendly suit was arranged by which an action was brought against Sir Edward Hales, a Catholic colonel, by Grodden, his coachman, on the charge of accepting a commission in the army in disobedience to

the Test Act. The decision was given in June 1686. ^M^Sm, ^^ ^^® bench of twelve judges, eleven supported the

dispensing power of the king. Chief Justice Herbert declared that inasmuch as the laws of England were the king^s laws, it was for him to dispense with penal laws in particular cases, whenever he saw fit. Upon the basis of this astounding decision, which threatened the entire legislative authority of parliament, James proceeded at once to fill all possible places in the army and the civil service with his co-religionists.

In order to entrench himself in the state church, the king followed a somewhat similar method. The process, however, of

waiting for vacancies in church livings in order to fill on the them with Catholics, proved too slow to satisfy James,

who was now thoroughly warmed to his work. On July 14, 1686, he instituted by patent a "Commission for the Trial of Ecclesiastical Causes,^' expressly empowering it to exercise its authority, "notwithstanding any law or statute to the contrary.*' The jurisdiction of the new court did not extend to the laity, but as far as the clergy were concerned it was virtually a revival of the old Court of High Commission. It was composed of seven members. Jeffreys, the Lord Chancellori was president^

418 THB WHIG BEYOLUTIOK [jambd.

and no session coald be held without him. The king of coarse had no legal right to create such a court ; it was not only a direct usurpation of powers which parliament had once by law explicitly denied the crown ; it was also a flagrant invasion of the rights which Tory churchmen had secured for themselves as a reward for their support of the Stuart Eestoration.

In the spring the movements of the king became yet mor« menacing, and popular suspicion and discontent continued to

rise accordingly. The refusal of parliament to allow pnrcH to meet James to increase his standing army compelled him to

look elsewhere for increased military support, ahould it be needed. Ireland offered a most favorable recruiting ground for such a Catholic army. But it was necessary to have a Lord Deputy in Ireland who would not be unnerved by any English sympathies, when the king should need the help of an Irish army in England. Accordingly in February the elder Hyde, Lord Clarendon, a brother-in-law of the king, was recalled, and Talbot was sent out in his place. The younger Hyde, Lord Rochester, was removed from the council. Halifax, the champion of legitimate succession, had been removed the preceding year. The temper of London, James feared somewhat, and marched an army of 13,000 men to lloimslow Heath and there encamped them in order to overawe the city. In the meanwhile he continued to fill all the high places in church and state and army with Catholics or with lukewarm Protestants.

James now felt himself strong enough to begin the direct attack upon the restrictive religious legislation of the past two ThcDeciara- generations. On April 4, 1G87, he issued his famous ^^encc Alrii Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended by royal 4, ia.<f7. proclamation all the laws against Catholic or Protestant

Dissenters. The Declaration on the one hand was a defiance to the old high church party who had given birth to the Clarendon Code; on the other it was a direct bid for the support of Protestant Dissenters. James evidently thought that the Tories would live up to their principle of nonresistance, and that the Protestant nonconformists would gladly acquiesce in a measure so clearly in their interests. But lie was soon to find that in both cases he

1687] THE DEGLABATIOK OP INDULGEKGE 419

had gravely misread hnman nature. When he attempted to present a Benedictine monk to the University of Cambridge for the degree of Master of Arts, the authorities flatly refused to confer the degree unless the candidate should take the oath pre- scribed by law ; and it was necessary for the Commission for the Trial of Ecclesiastical Causes to take Dr. Peckell, the vice chancellor of the university, in hand. The occurrence of a vacancy in the presidency of the Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, gave James another opportunity to enforce his peculiar views of religious liberty, and Oxford an opportunity to practice its favorite doctrine of nonresistance. James attempted to force upon the Fellows, Samuel Parker, the recently appointed bishop of Oxford, who was in sympathy with James's religious views. But the Fellows, instead of submitting, elected Dr. Hough, their own candidate. Ilere again the Commission was called upon to interfere; and Dr. Hough and the Fellows who supported him were summarily turned out. The nonconforming bodies were no better pleased with James's efforts in their behalf. With the exception of a few, as the Quaker, William Penn, all took their stand with the Tory churchmen. Thus the aggressions of James were slowly but surely consolidating against him a determined body of resistance, in which Whigs and Tories, regardless of political differences, and Anglican churchmen and nonconformists, regardless of religious differences, stood together for the inviola- bility of the laws of the land.

In the meanwhile James was blindly pushing forward his measures for getting control of the government. On July 2, 1687,

he dissolved his first parliament, which he had not thecitrpo- allowed to sit since December 1685, and set about

getting together a new parliament better to his liking by the simple process of excluding Tories from the corporations and putting Dissenters in their places. The justices and deputy- lieutenants of the counties, who refused to promise compliance with the wishes of the king, were also removed. Nearly one- half the lords-lieutenant were allowed to resign in order that Catholics and Dissenters might be appointed to their places.

Nonresistance had now reached its limit. The remodeling of

1

420 THB WHIG BEYOLUTION j^X

the corporations and the fillmg of the coanty offices with the The second rsligious f rionds of James spread consternation eyery- o/ini^^ where. So high ran the feeling, that when the work geiice, ^^ done, and the membership of the corporations was

remodeled to the king^s liking, even his obtnse mind began to comprehend the real temper of the nonconformist bodies, and he dared not issue a call for the new parliament. Yet he had no thought of yielding, and on April 25, 1688, with the sanc- tion of his Privy Council, he reissued the Declaration of In- dulgence and ordered it to be read in all the churches; in London, on the last two Sundays of May, and in the rest of the kingdom, on the first two Sundays of June. If the meas- ure were designed to put the doctrine of nonresistance to the test, James ought to have been satisfied. When the first Sunday appointed in May came, only four of the clergy of London read the Declaration, and in each case the congregation refused to stay to hear the proclamation. But far more serious than the action of individual clergymen or congregations, was a formal petition which on the 18th of May was presented to the king by seven bishops, among whom was Archbishop Sancroft himself, beseeching the king not to force them or their clergy to break the law. James was furious, but Tory churchmen, now that their bishops had protested, no longer hesitated, and when the first Sun- day of June came, scarcely any one consented to read the Declara- tion. James turned his wrath upon the seven bishops, and on the 8th of June, sent them to the Tower, on a charge of publishing a seditious libel. The people gathered in vast crowds to see the

seven quiet-faced men pass under guard to the great and trial of state prisou, and as they passed along shouted after

them benedictions and prayers for their safety. The trial was brought on before the Court of King's Bench on June 29. Late at night the jury, which had been chosen in accordance with the corrupt methods of the day, retired to consider its verdict. Few people in London slept that night. The city, at fever heat, waited while the jury deliberated, and when in the morning the foreman, to the surprise of all, pronounced the talismanic **Not guilty," the words were caught up by the watch-

1688] BIBTH OF PBIKCB OP WALES 421

ers and in a few minntes were shonted by waiting mnltitudes in the streets; the whole city, Whigs and Tories, Churchmen and Dissenters, went wild with joy. Even the soldiers on Hounslow Heath, who had been called to arms to suppress mob violence if need be, caught the contagion and shouted and cheered them- selves hoarse with the townsmen.

The bishops, however, were not the only cause of all this popular excitement. Two days after the arrest of the bishops, Mary of Modena, the second wife of James, had given James Fran- birth to a SOU, James Francis Edward. Under the l^r/.^ intense excitement of the moment, men were willing to believe any extravagance, and the fact that none but Jameses Catholic friends were present to greet the prince on his arrival, gave color to the story, which was soon widely believed, that the prince was not a royal child at all, but had been smuggled into the palace by a Jesuit trick, in order to defeat the succession of James's eldest daughter, the Princess of Orange. The rumor was without foundation ; but the appearance, at such a time, of a direct heir to the throne, who would be certain to be reared in the faith of the father and mother, precipitated the crisis. The Protestant nation had up to this point endured James, because they thonght his reign could not in the course of nature last long. But now they saw the promise of a Catholic rule indefinitely prolonged, unless prevented by immediate action. On the day after the acquittal of the bishops, seven prominent men, regardless of any previous party affiliations, sent an invita- tion to William of Orange to bring a Dutch army into England and save the nation from the rule of popery.

When the letter of the seven reached William he was just facing another great war with Louis XIV. In 1686 he had ThevroUem completed the coalition against France, known as the fronted^ League of Augsburg, which included all the great waiiam. powers of Western Europe. The letter of the seven, therefore, offered a tempting opportunity to William; by dethroning James he might detach England and Scotland from their quasi alliance with France, and by adding them to the League complete the cordon of hostile powers which he had been

422 THE WHIG BEYOLUnOK [x

drawing about Louis. It was an opportunity to be greeted with fierce joy by a man who beheld at last the realization of the passion of his life within his grasp. And yet the dangers were great. A direct attack upon James must appear to William's Catholic allies as a direct attack upon their religion, and might lead to the disruption of the League which he had built up at the cost of infinite pains and patience. Louis, also, could not be expected to look on in apathy, while WiUiam OTorthrew James and added England to the enemies of France. Simply the gathering of an army would be enough to arouse the wary Louis's suspicion, and the moment the Dutch fieet faced the Channel Louis might be expected to throw an army into Holland. But an even more serious difficulty lay at home. Before the Stad- holder could act constitutionally he must take every city of the Dutch confederation into his confidence and secure its consent. Secrecy was of course impossible. The old pro-French oligarchy still had a powerful following in many of the cities, especially in Amsterdam, and French gold might be expected to play an important part in rousing the old party of the De Witts to vigorous opposition. It was a task from which a man even of William^s patience and determination might shrink.

With strange blindness, however, Louis himself persisted in removing all obstacles from the path of William. In the first place, Louis selected this moment to open a quarrel Limisxnr. with the pope somewhat similar to that of the old ' quarrels of the English kings with the pope over annates. In 1688 the quarrel passed into open rupture. The archiepiscopal see of Cologne was vacant. The pope. Innocent XI., and the emperor had united upon a candidate, but Louis, who had no wish to lose the control which he had recently secured on the Lower Khiue, proposed with the support of a French army to set up at Cologne his ally, Furstenberg, bishop of Strasburg. The pope, also, had not only disapproved of the foolhardy course of James in England, but was deeply offended by his partiality for the Jesuits, who for some time had been in ill odor with the Holy See. Instead, therefore, of opposing William, the pope was ready to support him with his blessing;

1688] LOUIS AND JAMES 42?

he had shrewdly discerned that the interests of Europe lay iI^ crippling the power of Louis and staying the hand of James.

With the same blindness Louis persisted in strengthening tho anti-French sentiment among the Dutch burghers, by foolishly ^^ forbidding his own people the use of Dutch linens and

and the ' woolen goods, or even the eating of Dutch herrings

unless they had been cured with French salt. And as if this were not enough, by beginning an attack upon the Palatinate far from the Dutch borders, he not only saved William from the fear of immediate invasion, but enabled him to rely with con- fidence upon the support of the "Great Elector,'* Frederick William of Brandenburg, who although he lay on his death bed, yet sent forward enough troops to hold Louis in check and thus protect the Netherlands.

So far Louis was doing all that he could to help William; yet it would be strange if James also could not lend a hand in the

last moment. Louis had offered James the support of ^^J^^ his fleet, and announced to Europe that any measures

directed against James would be regarded as a declaration of war against France. But James with touching national pride repudiated the insinuation that a king of England was a dependent upon France like the elector of Cologne; he needed no French ships and would take care of himself without French aid. Louis took the snub, left James to himself, and bent all his energies upon establishing Furstenberg in Cologne.

Thus, one by one, all possible obstacles which might arise in William's path from sources out of England, were removed. James William, however, might still question how the English

lihnati^i ^^^^^ regard a foreign interference, supported by a seiutment. foreign army. But here also James did not fail him. James was not pleased by the way in which his English soldiers on Hounslow Ueath had approved the acquittal of the seven bishops. He broke up the camp, therefore, and scattered the English troops in detachments about the country, while he brought over a body of Irish soldiers to overawe the capital. English national prejudices were thus already thoroughly aroused, but in a way which would lead the people to hail the landing of

424 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [x

an army of Protestant Dutchmen almost as fellow countrymen. In addition to this affront to national pride, always tender upon the subject of an invasion of England by Irish soldiers, James gave yet another fillip to William's cause by ordering that the names of all clergymen who had refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence, be returned to the Ecclesiastical Commission. Some 10,000 of the English clergy thus saw themselyes threatened with the tender mercies of Jeffreys and his Court of High Com- mission. This order, with the appearance of Irish Catholic soldiers in the camp before London, completely demolished what little there was left of nonresistance sentiment. All England was ready to receive William and his foreign soldiers with open arms. Even Sunderland saw that the days of high Tory rule were over, and with Churchill sought to make friends with William by sending him secret information of the progress of affairs at Whitehall.

Thus '*with stern deUght William looked on while his adversaries toiled to clear obstacle after obstacle from his path."

James had heard first of the warlike preparations of STowS"* William from Louis, but had been inclined to credit

the report to Louis's desire to scare him into an alliance with France in the opening struggle with the pope. But other rumors had followed fast, and at last the unpleasant truth was forced upon him that unless he could secure the support of his own much wronged people, nothing could save him. In the forlorn hope, therefore, of conciliating his English enemies, James began a series of sweeping concessions ; the lords -lieutenant and magistrates wore restored ; London and other cities and boroughs were hurriedly given back their old charters; the Ecclesiastical Commission was dissolved; oven Dr. Hough and the Fellows of Magdalen were reinstated. He further announced that he depended solely on the loyalty of his subjects, and offered to give satisfactory evidence of the genuineness of the new Prince James. In his frantic efforts to win the support of his people, he even published a general pardon. But it was too late ; the devil was evidently hard sick and no one would believe now in his profes- sions of repentance.

1688] THB LAKDIKQ OF WILUAK 425

On the 10th of October William issaed from his palace at Loo a declaration designed to justify his actions in the eyes of T/ieDectoro- Europe as much as to disarm the suspicions of the ^Lanaina^' English. He reviewed the arbitrary acts of James, wuiiam. proclaimed his own right of intervention as the husband of the heiress to the English crown, and assured the people of England that he came only to secure a free parliament, pledging himself to abide by its decision. On the 16th of October ho set sail with some 600 transports, and about 50 men-of-war as a convoy. Contrary wiuds, however, drove him back, and he did not succeed in reaching England until November 5. He landed at Brixham in Torbay, and with the little army of 13,000 which he had brought with him, marched to Exeter, where he waited for the gentry of the west to join him. Few, however, came to him at first ; the memories of Sedgemoor and the Bloody Assize were too fresh upon the minds of the western people to permit them to respond lightly to a first call to arms. But after two weeks the outlook began to brighten; good news also reached William from the. north, where Danby and Devonshire were raising the people in his name and had taken possession of York and Nottingham.

James in the meanwhile had roused himself to repel the invasion. He had depended upon his fieet to prevent the land- ing of William, but the storm which had delayed ?aukf<7M^. William had held the king's ships in the Thames. The king had also gathered an army of about 40,000 men, which lay at Salisbury, where he joined them on the 19th, preparatory to disputing the eastward march of William. William's army bore no comparison to that of James, but like Henry VII. under similar circumstances, he was assured of wide spread disaffection in the camp of his adversaries and boldly pushed forward. At Winchester the advance-guards met and a slight skirmish ensued, in which James's troops were routed. Here also the defection of James's supporters began and he soon became satisfied that he could not depend upon his army in battle. Instead of fighting, therefore, he retired upon London. In London for the first time he learned that his second daughter.

\

424 THB WHIG BEYOLUTION [jAna

an army of Protestant Dntchmen almost as fellow countrymen. In addition to this affront to national pride, always tender npon the subject of an invasion of England by Irish soldiers, James gave yet another fillip to William's cause by ordering that the names of all clergymen who had refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence, be returned to the Ecclesiastical Commission. Some 10,000 of the English clergy thus saw themselves threatened with the tender mercies of Jeffreys and his Court of High Com- mission. This order, with the appearance of Irish Catholic soldiers in the camp before London, completely demolished what little there was left of nonresistance sentiment. All England was ready to receive William and his foreign soldiers with open arms. Even Sunderland saw that the days of high Tory rule were over, and with Churchill sought to make friends with William by sending him secret information of the progress of affairs at Whitehall.

Thus "with stem delight William looked on while his adversaries toiled to clear obstacle after obstacle from his path.''

James had heard first of the warlike preparations of 2?5^J*J^ William from Louis, but had been inclined to credit

the report to Louis's desire to scare him into an alliance with France in the opening struggle with the pope. But other rumors had followed fast, and at last the unpleasant truth was forced upon him that unless he could secure the support of his own much wronged people, nothing could save him. In the forlorn hope, therefore, of conciliating his English enemies, James began a series of sweeping concessions; the lords -lieutenant and magistrates were restored ; London and other cities and boroughs were hurriedly given back their old charters; the Ecclesiastical Commission was dissolved; even Dr. Hough and the Fellows of Magdalen were reinstated. lie further announced that he depended solely on the loyalty of his subjects, and offered to give satisfactory evidence of the genuineness of the new Prince James. In his frantic efforts to win the support of his people, he even published a general pardon. But it was too late ; the devil was evidently hard sick and no one would believe now in his profea- Biona ot repentance.

1688] THB LAKDINQ OF WILUAK 425

On the 10th of October William issued from his palace at Loo a declaration designed to justify his actions in the eyes of TheDeciofn- Europe us much as to disarm the suspicions of the 'uTJin^ English. He reviewed the arbitrary acts of James, ^tiliam, proclaimed his own right of intervention as the husband of the heiress to the English crown, and assured the people of England that he came only to secure a free parliament, pledging himself to abide by its decision. On the 16th of October he set sail with some 600 transports, and about 50 men-of-war as a convoy. Contrary winds, however, drove him back, and he did not succeed in reaching England until November 5. He landed at Brixham in Torbay, and with the little army of 13,000 which he had brought with him, marched to Exeter, where he waited for the gentry of the west to join him. Few, however, came to him at first ; the memories of Sedgemoor and the Bloody Assize were too fresh upon the minds of the western people to permit them to respond lightly to a first call to arms. But after two weeks the outlook began to brighten; good news also reached William from the. north, where Danby and Devonshire were raising the people in his name and had taken possession of York and Nottingham.

James in the meanwhile had roused himself to repel the invasion. He had depended upon his fieet to prevent the land- ing of William, but the storm which had delayed ^ghZ^Tm^- William had held the king's ships in the Thames. The king had also gathered an army of about 40,000 men, which lay at Salisbury, where he joined them on the 19th, preparatory to disputing the eastward march of William. William's army bore no comparison to that of James, but like Henry VII. under similar circumstances, he was assured of wide spread disaffection in the camp of his adversaries and boldly pushed forward. At Winchester the advance-guards met and a slight skirmish ensued, in which James's troops were routed. Here also the defection of James's supporters began and he soon became satisfied that he could not depend upon his army in battle. Instead of fighting, therefore, he retired upon London. In London for the first time he learned that his second daughter.

426 THE WHIO REVOLUnOlir [x

Anne, bad also gone over to his enemies. Her husband, George of Denmark, had deserted him at Andover.

The defection of his children seems to have broken the spirit of the king. He promised the Lords to call a parliament and directed Lord Chancellor Jeffreys to draw np the London. His writs. He also agreed to negotiate with William and ^ appointed Halifax with two other commissioners to

represent him at a conference. The commission met William at Hungerford December 8, but instead of awaiting the resalt of the conference, or the meeting of parliament, on the morning of the 10th, the king sent away his wife and son, and at three o'clock of the morning of the 11th himself stole away to the coast, haying first, with a childish idea of making as mnch trouble as possible, burned the writs for the call of parliament, thrown the Great Seal into the Thames, and left orders for Feversham to disband the troops.

As soon as the flight of the king was known, the Lords assumed the government of the city, and attempted to preserve The''iri»h or^^^i pending the unfolding of the next act of the cJmher^s revolution. In a few hours, however, the populace ^*^ had learned of the flight of the king, and for a night

and a day London lay in the hands of the mob, who vented their fury in a senseless looting of the chapels and better houses which belonged to their Catholic fellow citizens; even the embassies of the Catholic powers did not escape. Then followed a night of panic, long known as the "Irish Night,'' the terrors of which were as senseless as the former fury. The rumor had spread that the disbanded Irish regiments were marching to sack the city, and during long hours London waited behind closed barricades, startled by every unwonted sound and expecting each moment to leam that the massacre had already begun in the streets. In the early morning of the 12th, Jeffreys had been found hiding in a waterside tavern at Wapping where in the dis- guise of a sailor he was watching his chance to get away, and only the interposition of the authorities, who bore him off to the Tower, had saved him from being torn to pieces by the infuriated mob. A diligent search was also made for Petre, but he witb

1688, 1689] THE PUOHT OF JAMBS 427

better success had made his escape. Finally by the exertions of the mayor and the city ofiScials supported by the Lords, the anarchy was allayed and a messenger sent to William to invite him to march into the town.

James, in the meantime, had been overhauled near Shippey by some common seamen and finally returned to Whitehall.

William was not pleased with the return and sternly Hiohtqf insisted that the king leave Whitehall, and on the 18th

of December sent his Dutch guards to escort him to Boch ester, where he had every opportunity to escape if he wished it. James took the hint, and on the morning of December 23, left England forever, joining his wife and son in France. Louis gave him a courteoas greeting, assigned the palace of St. Oer- mains for his use and allotted him a pension of £40,000.

On the day that James left London, William entered the city and took up his quarters in St. James Palace. The streets

everywhere were gay with orange ribbons; courtiers ^^jj^*^ flocked to the palace to make their peace with the

coming man. Some urged William to claim the crown at once by right of conquest; but he wisely remembered the pledge which he had made at Loo, and by the advice of an irregular assembly composed of the Lords and some gentlemen who had been members of parliament in Charles II. 's time, determined to call a Convention as Monk had done under similar circumstances thirty years before.

The new parliament, known as "the Convention,'' met January 22, 1G89. It sought to give legal sanction to the

present order by declaring: First, that James had Conventi'm broken the original contract of king and people, that January by withdrawing himself from the kingdom he had

virtually abdicated, and that therefore the throne was vacant; second, that experience had taught that it was "not consistent either with the safety or welfare of the kingdom to be governed by a popish prince." They then proceeded to name William and Mary joint sovereigns, but "the entire, perfect, and full exercise of ihe royal power and government" was placed wholly in William's hands.

428 THE DECLARATION OF BIGHTS [wkiuAHAioMAR.

The Revolution was now complete. Not only were the Whigs in power, but the Whig theory of the state had been formally

embodied in the constitutional law of England. A aiionof very important work, however, remained to be done.

In 1660 the Presbyterians had made no conditions ¥rith Charles II. and bitterly had they repented of their folly. The Whigs did not intend to repeat the blunder. Accordingly a com- mittee of the Commons hastily drew up a declaration of rights, which they submitted to William not as u new law, but as a simple statement of the rights of Englishmen as they already existed under the laws of the land. It reviewed the violation of these laws by James, and so served also as a formal justification of the revolution. The hurried work of i the committee was accepted by both houses ahnost as it stood. William and Mary ratified the act, and on February 13 they were formally tendered the crown and proclaimed King and Queen of England.

SPECIAL TOPICS

For the topics suggested below, the stuu^nt will find of prime Importance: Clarendon's History of the ReheUion and Civil Ware in England: Bruoo (editor), Th4

Commonwealth and Protectorate; Hauke, Uistoryof England in the 17th Century (Transla- tion), Vol. I, p. 886- Vol. IV, p. 528; Macaulay's History of England, Vols. I and II.

The biographical sketches of the men of this era which appear In the Di^onary of National Biography are also of great value and are accompanied in each Instance by a critical and comprehensive bibliography.

The Issue between the Stuart Kings and Thsib Parliaments: Terry, pn. 618-024, 68(^683. "^ *^*^

The Millenary Petition and the Hampton Court Conivrencb: Gee and Hardy, pp. 608-512; Gardiner, History of England^ VoL I, pp. 148-158.

The Crown Revenues at Accession of James L: Prothero, S. 3.; Introduction, pp. Ixix-lxxxlv.

Ck)KE and the Independence op the Courts: Gardiner, History of England, Vol. IV, pp. 40, 41 ; Article by G. P. Macdonald in Die. of Nat. Biog., Vol. XI, pp. 239-342; Prothero, 8. A, pp. 899-409.

The Petition of Right: Gardiner, Const. Docs, of the Puritan Rev., pp. 1-4; TasweU- Langmead, pp. 453-556.

John Hampden: Firth in Die. of Nat. Biog., Vol. XXIV. pp. 254-293; Porster, Life of Hampden, In Lardner's Cabind Cyclopedia; Nugent, Memorials of John Hampden.

"Kino Pym**: Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia; Forster's John Pym; Gardiner in Die. of Nat. Biography, Vol. XL. VII. pp. 75-88.

The Trial of CTharlrs I.: Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 287-291; Adams and Ste- phens, pp. 888-394; Lee, Source Book, pp. 864-372.

Oliver CJromwell: Biographies by Gardiner, Carlyle, PIcton, Morley, and Plrth.

The Clarendon Code: Gee ajid Hardy, pp. 594-632; Adams and Stephens, pp. 428>4SS.

The Habeas Corpus Act: Adams and Stephens, pp. 440-448; Lee, Sourer Book^ pp. 400-409.

The English Sea-Power in Stuart Period: Mahan, Influence of the 8ea-Pow«r «i3>on History, Chaps. I-III; Hannay, Admiral Blake.

-.X'v

/ 1 . 1. '

tct

)

r

I

<

1 •

i '

'' \\l/'^

PART IV— IMPERIAL ENGLAND

THE EEA OF NATIONAL EXPANSION

1689 TO THE CLOSE OF THE 19TH CENTURY

CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNINQ OF PARTY BULE IN ENGLAND AND THE FOUNDING OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY

WILLIAM AND MARY, 16ti9-ie94 WILLIAM lU., 1694-171B

At the time of his accession, William was forty years old. He was cold, reserved, as were all his race, the effect of which was heightened by an indifferent command of the wSISmui/. English tongue. He did not know how to arouse enthusiasm. He lived among a people who were nationally bigoted, yet he made no effort to disguise his preference for the land of his birth, or to hide his lack of affection for the land of his adoption. His health was frail; his body was fre- quently racked with an asthmatic cough, which compelled him to seek seclusion whenever the cares of state or of war gave him the opportunity. The task, moreover, which confronted William was by no means simple. Whigs as well as Tories hesitated to commit themselves to the unqualified support of the ofwuiiam*8 new monarch; the Whigs on principle were as unwill- ing to strengthen his hands as they had been to strengthen the hands of his predecessor; the Tories out of sympathy with the king whom they had helped to undo, did not wish to see the king de facto so thoroughly established in his position as to remove all hope of the return of the king by divine right. Then, too, the men with whom William had to deal were the politicians of the Bestoration, and the corrupt practices of a generation could not be unlearned in a day.

430 BEGINNING OF PARTY BULB [willum ab» lUn

William, like Charles II. , began his reign with a Gonyention which declared itself a parliament. The ^lember8 were of course overwhelmingly Whig, as the first Gonyention cSnvlmSwl parliament had been overwhelmingly royalist, and T^eBiuS^ soon Outstripped the king in their desire to punish old 2^^^ enemies. They managed, however, to place upon the statute books some excellent laws by which the principles of the Revolution were definitely secured. They abolished "Hearth Money," which had been levied since 1653. They showed their Whiggism by fixing the revenues of the crown at one-third less than the amount which a Tory parliament had given to James, and also by limiting the grant in time. A similar security was also devised in fixing the time limit to the military powers of the crown. By the Declaration of Bights it was declared to be unlawful to keep up a standing army in time of peace without the consent of parliament. It was also declared unlawful to suspend the ordinary civil courts in order to enforce military discipline. The mutiny of a Scottish regiment, how- ever, showed the danger of adhering too literally to this restric- tion; and parliament was forced to pass the "Mutiny Act" which fully authorized the courts martial, but by limiting the act to six months saved the valuable principle of the D^laration. Experience has fully justified the wisdom of these measures, and each year since, with some exceptions, the Mutiny Act and the money bills have been regularly renewed. This important series of constitutional legislation was completed in October 1689 by the passage of the famous Bill of Bights, which made the Declf^ ration of Bights of February a part of the fundamental law of England.

The religious problem was as diflBcult to settle as ever. The king, who was tolerant both by nature and by policy, desired to see the Test Act abolished, but the Whigs gave him uonA^Tms, l^^^l® encouragement. Daniel Finch, the earl of Not- tingham, sought to solve the difficulty by broadening the church establishment so as to include the less radical Dissent- ers, but met with no success. A Toleration Act, also largely the work of Nottingham, succeeded better. By this act, Proteetant

1089] THE TOLERATION ACT 481

Dissenters were allowed freedom of worship on condition that iheir meetings be held in registered meeting-houses with doors open to all, that the worshipers take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and that the minister subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles, except- ing those parts which dealt with the authority of the church. Baptists were permitted to omit also the article which affirmed infant baptism. Quakers were to be allowed by the courts to affirm instead of taking the oath. Catholics and Unitarians were excepted from the benefits of the act. The act has been broad- ened from time to time since; but the old Test Act and its fellow, the Corporation Act, remained on the statute books until 1828. Dissidents, whether Catholic or Protestant, were not admitted to the universities until 1871. The Toleration Act receiyed the assent of William and became law in May 1689.

While the moderates were thus trying to find some standing for nonconformists within the laws, the ranks of nonconformity

received a new accession from the very men who had IJ^J!^ most bitterly opposed the Toleration Act. Under the

lead of Archbishop Bancroft, a body of about three hundred clergymen, including all the nonjuring bishops of 1689 except Trelawney, refused to take the new oaths of allegiance and supremacy. The government waited a year for these "unreconstructed" Tories to accept the new conditions, and then deprived them of their livings. The nonjurors insisted on regard- ing themselves as the true Charch of England, and continued as a distinct body until the death of their last bishop in 1805.

Long before parliament had completed the adjustment of the laws of England to the new conditions, it had become evident

that to establish the Revolution in the other parts of /fonin the Stuart dominions, something more vigorous was

^^^^ needed than the enactment of good laws. Tyrconnel

had assumed the duties of Lord Deputy in Ireland in 1687 and in two years had managed to place most of the civil and military offices in the hands of the Catholics; a reconstruction of the Corporations, also, had assured the character of the Lrish parlia- ment. When, therefore, James reached Ireland in March of 1689 he found the government of one of his kingdoms at least ordered

432 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [whuam asi» Mm

to his liking; and the parliament which he assembled at Dublin at once proceeded to register in formal enactment their loyalty to the king and their hatred of his enemies, repealing the various acts of their predecessor which had recognized the supremacy of the English parliament or the English courts, and condemning in one gigantic Act of Attainder some 2,445 Protestants.

The Protestant population believed that a general massacre was about to take place, and from all southern and eastern Ireland Resistance of ^®?*^ flocking into the northern counties, where the oriS^nnis^ Overwhelming Protestant strength of Londonderry ^^^^^' and Enniskillen promised them a refuge in the coming

storm. At Londonderry the population had defied the newly established Catholic Corporation of Tyrconnel, elected Protestant governors, and declared for King William. For 105 days, an Irish army of 25,000 men under Bichard Hamilton was held at bay from behind the crumbling walls ; and when at last on July 30, Colonel Eirke, now in better business than when he was hanging Devonshire peasants, broke the boom which Hamilton had thrown across the river and relieved the city, only two days' rations remained. The Irish army at once raised the siege and began to retire towards the south. On August 2, the men of Enniskillen, who had passed through a similar siege, defeated their opponents under Justin M'Carthy at Newtown Butler. William, who all this time had been hampered by the treason, corruption, and inefficiency of his officials at home, had been able to do nothing beyond sending out the relief expedition under Kirke; but in the autumn he managed to get over a small army of English and Dutch under the command of his great Marshal, Schomberg; and in June 1G90, he himself landed at Bnyne^Jviy Belfast with an Anglo-Dutch army of 36,000 men.

I 2S90' w /

He found James with an army of Irish and French posted in a strong position on the Boyne. Here William attacked James on July 1, his men boldly plunging into the river and fighting their way to the opposite bank. Nothing but the loss of Schomberg and the fine work of the Irish cavalry and of the French under Lauzun, prevented William from annihilating the Irish infantry.

TBEATY OP LIMERICK 433

James fled to France and left the people whom he had publicly siigmatized as a race of cowards to carry on the unequal struggle Flight of alone. At the end of the year, however, in spite of TrecSiof ^^^ Overwhelming victory of the Boyne and of some LimericL succcsses of ChurchUl, recently made earl of Marl- borough, fully one-half the island was still in Irish hands. The next year Louis sent over St. £uth to help Tyrconnel, and the struggle reopened with vigor on both sides. Oinkel, the [able lieutenant whom William had left in command, carried the line of the Shannon with great difficulty, capturing Athlone, only to find the enemy again confronting him at Aughrim. Here St. £uth fell and ^the Irish lost 6,000 men. Oalway also was taken and in August only Limerick remained. After two months of hard fighting the brave Sarsfield, who had succeeded Tyrconnel, was compelled to surrender. Limerick capitulated on October 3. The terms were generous and in very different temper from James's Act of Attainder. Thirty-four thousand Irish soldiers and their families were allowed to withdraw to France, where the most of them took service under the French king and nobly sustained the honors of their race and of their foster country as

members of the famous ''Irish Brigade." The civil the Treaty of terms of the treaty, however, were never fulfilled.

Upwards of four thousand families were deprived of lands, which aggregated over 1,000,000 acres. The Irish parlia- ment, once more in the hands of the Protestant minority, then set itself to stamp out Catholicism altogether, in order to secure 1 he permanent ascendency of the Protestant English [minority.

On the 14th of March, 1689, a convention had met at Edinburgh to consider the Scottish situation. The Whigs were

in a powerful majority, and on March 18, James's tvmins&}V- representative, Oraham of Glaverhouse, now Viscount

Dundee, left the city. As soon as Dundee was gone, the convention offered the crown to William; but first secured themselves, by drawing up a Scottish declaration of rights, called the "Claim of Rights." On May 11, William and Mary formally accepted the crown and took the Scottish coronation oath. The ceremony was held at Whitehall in the presence of

434 BEGIKKING. OF PARTY BULE [wouax Am Mm

Scottish commissioners. In accepting the Claim of Sights William yirtually promised to abolish '* Prelacy," and accordingly the next year, the old Presbyterian system of government was once more, and this time permanently, restored in the National Kirk of Scotland.

The temper of the Highlanders for a time remained in donbt. Dundee had retired from Edinburgh to rally the old Tory clans, Thesubmis- ^^^ ^^ "^^^J ^'^> 1689, had Surprised the government mahQidcrs, ^^oops abovo the pass of Killiecrankie. Dundee, Qiawoe. howevcr, had been slain at the first shock of battle, and his followers, although victorious, had dispersed to their homes. For some months the war had then smouldered on with- out advantage to either side. The conviction of the hopelessness of the struggle, however, supported by the gracious proffer by William of a dole to each chieftain in order that he might pay his debts and begin life anew, effectually stifled any lingering devotion to the elder Stuarts, and by January 1, 1692, the Macdonalds of Olencoe alone remained. By the 6th, their chief, Mac Ian Macdonald, also took the oath, but unfortunately, the govern- ment had fixed upon December 31, 1691, as the last day of grace, and in an evil hour William allowed his representatives in Scot- land, the Dalrymples, the foes of the Macdonalds, to persuade him to make an example of the tardy clansmen by devoting the clan to military execution. The order was carried out with barbaric treachery and ferocity; for although only about forty were actually slain, it was no fault of the lieutenants of William, that the entire clan was not destroyed.

The active support which Louis gave to James made it easy for William to secure the primary object of his interference in English affairs, — that is, to add England to the League the English of Augsburg. The ostensible object of the war was to confine Louis to the boundaries of his kingdom as prescribed by the Treaty of the Pyrenees. But the English fought also for the special purpose of keeping James out of England and putting an end to the Catholic-French influence which had so long dominated in English politics ; and thus the Wf^r 18 known to Englishmen as the ^^War of the English Sac-

1090-1698] WAR OF THE ENGLISH SUCGESSIOK 435

cession." It was marked by an almost unbroken series of French yictories upon land. On the sea also it opened under the most gloomy prospects for the English. On June 30, 1690, the day before the battle of the Boyne, Admiral Arthur Herbert, now Lord Torrington, lost the battle of Beachy Head. Fortunately, however, a victory of Russell off La Hogue, May 16, 1692, once more adjasted the scale in favor of England and restored English supremacy in the Channel. It is characteristic of the lurid atmosphere which hung over the English politics of the day, that at the time of his victory Russell was in actual correspond- ence with James, and excused himself for wrecking the fleet of Louis by the plea that his proforssional reputation was at stake. In contrast with the success of his treacherous admiral, William himself was beaten in August 1693 at Steinkirk and again in July at Landen.

In the meanwhUe William was carrying on a weary struggle at home with headstrong parliaments and perfidious ministers.

So disheartened was he that more than once he lion Pariia- threatened to leave the English to settle their quarrel missed, Jan- with Jamcs and Louis as best they might, and retire ^^ * * to his tulip beds at Loo. In January, 1690, he finally broke with the Convention Parliament. The vindictiveness of the Whigs had been thoroughly roused by the foolish violence of the parliament which James had called at Dublin, and nothing would satisfy them but vengeance for all that they had suffered since 1681. Accordingly on the 27th the Convention Parliament was dismissed.

The new parliament revealed the marked increase of Tory sentiment in the country, and William, to ensure friendly codpera-

tion with his ministry, dismissed some of the radical Beamdpar- Whigs and filled their places with Tories. Danby,

now marquis of Gaermarthen, became William's chief adviser, while Godolphin and Shrewsbury were retired. The Tory parliament was a little more generous with William than his late Whig parliament. Eight hundred thousand pounds were granted for life, and £600,000, derived from the customs, were granted for five years. From these sums, £700,000 were set

436 BEGINNING OF PABTY BITLE [w&uaxaxd XAsr

apart to meet the king^s personal expenses, which then included

the salaries of all purely civil officials. This appropriation came

to be known as the ''Civil List." William was also

**Act of

Grocer May gratified by the passing of an "Act of Grace'* which promised amnesty for all past political offenses. The few exceptions were practically nominal; they included about thirty people, of whom some were safe in France with James, and others, the surviving members of the commission who had sent Charles I. to the block, had long since likewise taken themselves safely out of England.

The years 1693 and 1694 are marked by a series of remarkable financial measures, the wisdom of which has been justified by the experience of two centaries. These measures were, first the founding of the National Debt, and second the establishment of the Bank of England.

The drafts which the war was making upon the treasury, com- pelled William to face the alternative of bankruptcy or of asking for fresh grants from parliament. Various expedients ^n^N^ had been tried for augmenting the income of the government but they &iled to meet the constant demands of the war. The country was prosperous in spite of the war. Money was really abundant for all kinds of private business enterprise. How could the government coax a larger amount of it out of the coffers of the strong-headed burghers, without arousing their suspicions or raising the old cry that had been so fatal to Charles I.? Charles Montague, a young Whig connected with the treasury, proposed the simple expedient of borrowing money, not by the old-fashioned and unbusiness-Iike method of a short loan on the royal credit at a high rate of interest, but of a long loan at a low rate of interest. In 1693 the scheme was inaugurated by a loan of £1,000,000, which was to be repaid by a complicated system of life annuities. Thus came into existence the National Debt, so called in distinction from the old royal debts, which were always regarded as insecure and had been doubly unpopular since the Stop of the Exchequer of Charles II. The popularity among the merchaats of London of the new loan as an investment, was the best assurance of the final success of a

1694] THE BANK OF ENGLAND 487

war, in which, as Louis had acknowledged, the ''last pistole" would win.

Encouraged by the success of his loan, the next year Montague came forward with another scheme which had been devised by a Scotch banker, William Paterson. By this plan, for metuofthe which Montaguo secured the consent of parliament, laiuu/uiy those who subscribed to a guarantee loan of £1,200,000 '"'''''• at 8 per cent., were incorporated as the "Governor and Company of the Bank of England." The bank, in a word, pro- posed to monopolize the banking business which the goldsmiths had heretofore carried on with the government, and give its depositors better security by reason of its chartered privileges. To William the benefit was two-fold; it gave him a means of securing ready money, which was limited only by the confidence of the people; it also gave him the assured support of the capitalists who had purchased the stock of the bank, and of the vast army of depositors, who knew that if James ever got back to London, not a pound of their money, either of principal or interest, would they ever see again.

The year 1694 closed in deep mourning for king and people. On the 28th of December the gentle Mary, after a brief illness, jy^fii^f^f succumbed to the smallpox. Her death filled many ^mSers^ with the gravest apprehension. For, although she i6»4. iiad left the government of the kingdom entirely to

her husband, her gracious and tactful ways, As well as her nearness to the direct Stuart line, had done much to strengthen William where he most needed help. William had been sincerely devoted to his queen, and his pathetic loneliness appealed for sympathy wherever jealousy of Dutch infiuence had not stifled all noble sentiment.

Other events, also, helped to bring about a revulsion of popular feeling in the king's favor. Six days before the death of the Thc'Trienr ^^^^^^ ^^ S*^® ^18 consont to a "Triennial Act," ^De^'emb^ which he had vetoed five years before when presented 22, 1694, to him by his Whig parliament. By its terms, hence- forth no parliament could remain in power longer than three years. Li the months which followed Mary's death, the Whigs

438 BEGINNING OF PABTY BULB [wouabIIL

nnearthed the methods by which the East India Company had secured the renewal of its charter in 1693. Eighty thousand pounds had been distributed among the Tory leaders. Danby, the leader of the party, and Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House, were implicated and their influence shattered.

Another event of considerable importance dates also from the closing session of William's second parliament. During the reign f ^^ Charles I., the government had sustained a rigid the press ccnsorship of the press. After the Restoration, by the "Licensing Act" of 1662, parliament had not only authorized the crown to renew this arbitrary watch upon the output of the press, but had limited the whole number of master printers to twenty, and further had prescribed that no printing could be done at all, save in London, York, and the two universities. This act had been renewed since from time to time. The last renewal expired May 7, 1695, and parliament refused to repeat it. Thereafter a man might publish in England without official restriction, — subject only to action at common law should his publication prove to be "libelous, seditious, or blasphemous."

In August 1695, William scored his first real success against the French on land. In 1692 Namur had been taken by the French and fortified by Louis's'great engineer, Vauban. ^^'recajh It was garrisoned by 16,000 men. But in 1695, in end^Tthe^ spite of Louis's efforts to hold the place, it was retaken me^imf^ by William. This reversal of French arms, the first on land in half a century, was received by the English with a burst of enthusiasm, and when William returned in October he found himself at last a popular hero. He determined to take advantage of the change of sentiment of the people towards himself, as well as of the disfavor into which the recent disclosures had brought the Tory leaders, to dismiss his second parliament and appeal again to the nation. The step was fully justified by the result; the electors retunied not only a Whig parliament, but a parliament fully in sympathy with the king in promoting the war.

It was about this time that William began to reconstruct his ministry upon a plan suggested to him by Sunderland, who had

1605] THB JUNTO 439

not changed his coat so many times that he conld not still be useful to the party in power. The frequency with which treason- able plots among the Tory leaders had been brought w'hig to light, the assurance which William felt of the treach-

ery of some and the unworthiness of others, had led him to depend more and more upon the Whigs, in spite of his distrust of their radicalism. When it became evident, therefore, that the Whigs were to return to power, he made a clean sweep of the Tory members of his council and filled their places with pronounced Whigs. Thus the first distinctively Whig ministry came into existence, and the principle of party government was fairly inaugurated.

Of this, the first Whig ministry of the many to follow in the next two centuries, Wharton was the party manager. He was a man who knew all the outs and ins of political manage- HJJnto.' ment; and in spite of many vices was personally liked by the people. Associated with Wharton in the management of the party were Somers, Russell, and MontaguOi constituting what was called the ** Junto."

Among the first acts of the new parliament was a measure

designed to regulate trials for treason, making it impossible to

convict men upon such evidence as had sent William

The Trciuons

AeUJan, Eussell and Sidney to the block in 1683. The

1SS6

prisoner was to be presented with a copy of the charges against him, and a list of the panel ; he was also to be allowed the services of a lawyer. Further, he could not be convicted with- out the sworn testimony of two witnesses.

While this wise and humane measure was before parliament, some forty desperate adherents of the exiled Stuart were planning to assassinate William as the first step in preparing for active interference on the part of Louis. The plot was discovered in February 1696, and added greatly to the increasing popularity of the king. The Houses voted to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, in order to enable the government to detain suspects until sufficient evidence might be found against them. They also voted that the tenure of a parliament should not expire at the death of the king. The members of the Commons formed a *^ Loyal

440 BEGINNING OP PABTT BTTLB [wiuxamIIL

Association," which was sworn to avenge William's murder, and to maintain the Bill of Eights. Out of 530 members 420 took the oath, a fact which shows the strength of William's support in the Lower House. This miserable plot was responsible also for the last death by Act of Attainder. Several of the suspects had been executed under the terms of the new Treasons Act. But in the case of Sir John Fenwick, of whose guilt apparently there was no question, the disappearance of one of the two witnesses for the state, made his conviction impossible. The Whig leaders, however, determined not to allow the man to escape upon a mere technicality; and on January 11, 1G97, after a struggle of two months succeeded in getting through the Houses an Act of Attainder.

To the triumphs of the year 1696, is to be added yet another,

the greatest of the brilliant measures of William's finance minister.

In his scheme of raising money upon the government

The ^^liccoin' j r o

ooeActr credit, Montague had met no small difficulty in the fluctuating value of the coins themselves. Not only had the government debased the coinage in the past, but in spite of severe laws, coins in circulation had been clipped and battered until they were beyond recognition. The coins of full intrinsic value, that is the new coins from the mint, speedily disappeared ; many were sent abroad to meet the foreign bills of English merchants. As a result, investments were always uncertain at best, and were made with an ever increasing timidity. Long time loans were refused altogether, for no one knew in what kind of money they would be paid. In 1G96 parliament passed the "Recoinage Act," by which on May 24 mutilated coin was to cease to be legal tender. The government in the meantime was to redeem the clipped pieces, paying out in return a new coin, circled with the milled edge, a recently invented device to prevent clipping. A new loan of £1,200,000 was necessary to meet the expense of the redemption and the recoinage.

On October 20, 1696, Montague put the finishing touches to his great plan for placing the national credit upon a sound basis, by presenting to parliament three resolutions: first j that the Commons should support William against all foreign or

t696j MONTAGUE'S BESOLUTIOKS 441

domestic enemies; second^ that the standard of money should be altered neither in fineness, nor in weight, nor in denomination;

thirds that all deficiencies in parliamentary grants rci^JtSS^? "i^de since the king's accession, should be made good.

The first resolution brought out the unprecedented grant of nearly £5,000,000 for the war. The second resolution was opposed by some well meaning financiers who believed that a debasement of the coinage would help the government, but was finally carried. The third resolution, which pledged parliament to make good deficiencies amounting to more than £5,000,000, was followed by the "General Mortgage," which pledged the general revenue of the state to make good the nation's liabilities, should the taxes specially designated at any time fail to meet the object specified.

The principles of sound policy here laid down, which at once effectually restored English credit, have remained undisturbed Effects of ®^®^ since, — the foundation of the magnificent strength financFai^'^ of the modom British state. Louis had already measures. admitted that final victory lay not with the heaviest battalions but with the longest purse. His financiers were trying all manner of expedients to match this splendid showing of financial strength of William's government; but they failed utterly to comprehend the very first element necessary to the development of the financial resources of a state, — the confidence of the people in the integrity of the government and in its ability to keep its promises.

In the autumn of 1G96, therefore, the time was not far off when Louis must confess himself beaten. In January he was

glad to open negotiations with England, and in the ofRyHwick, following autumn the series of treaties known as the

Peace of Ryswick, put an end to the struggle of nine years. To the English the thing of chief importance in the treaty with Louis, was the formal recognition of William as king of England, and of Anne as his successor. Louis might continue to shelter James, but he pledged himself no longer to support his pretensions to the English crown. To satisfy the League, Louis agreed to surrender all territory which he had taken since the

442 BEGINNING OF PARTY BITLB [w&uimIIL

Treaty of Nimwegen, with the exception of Strasburg. It was the first serious check to outward expansion which France had received in a hundred years.

The Peace of Byswick marks the beginning of a new era in the reign of William. The nation caught a glimpse of the full significance of the plans which their king had carried *n wmiam*8 through to a triumphant peace, and for the moment Englishmen realized that they were living under the reign of one of the greatest of English kings. The Whig parlia- ment caught the contagion of enthusiasm and set to work to pay the bills which the war had incurred, doubling the tariff on many articles and securing a new loan of £2,000,000 through the English Company^ — a company of London merchants who for several years had been trading in the East Indies and nowreceived a charter, on condition of floating the government loan.

William, however, was not destined to taste the sweets of popularity long. Ever since the close of the Hundred Years' NewpoUHcai ^^^' ^^® Tudor policy, which on the one hand forbade fSSf^^a- foreign states to interfere in British affairs, and on the ^sSnto^T^' other forbade England to become a party in any of lish throne, ^hc purely continental quarrels, had been virtually the accepted political creed of the nation. Like the American Monroe Doctrine, the Tudor policy had never passed into formal law, and yet it had always formed a powerful reactionary influence for peace, whenever English ministers seemed inclined to take part in continental quarrels. Now when the war of the English Succession had been brought to a successful conclusion, what most Englishmen did not understand was that in accepting the head of the Augsburg League as their king, with him they had also adopted the great continental quariel with France, which had now been raging for a hundred years and was by no means ended. In other words, England had forever abandoned her insular isolation, and in spite of herself had become a con- tinental power, and a deeply interested party as well in maintain- ing the existing political balance of Europe. William saw this; it was in fact for this very purpose that he had accepted the English crown and brought England into line with the Leaguo.

NEW POLITICAL CONDITIONS 443

When, therefore, in order to put the country again upon a peace footing, parliament determined to cut down William's army from 80,000 men to 10,000 and also to allow the Mutiny Act to lapse, it met a very determined resistance on the part of the king. The childless Charles II. of Spain, the innocent cause of so much strife, was nearing his end at last. The son of Louis XIV. was the nearest of three heirs to the Spanish throne, and William had no reason to think that Louis with the enormous possessions of the Spanish house at stake, would hesitate a moment in setting either the Dauphin Louis or one of the Dauphin's sons upon the Spanish throne. It was altogether advisable, therefore, as the most certain way to prevent war, to keep the goyemment upon a war footing until the crisis should be passed. But the Whig parliament, moved by the traditional suspicion of great standing armies, appealed to the accumulating national debt, which had already reached the appalling sum of £14,000,000, and to the unprecedented taxation which was no longer necessary now that the country was at peace, and demanded a reduction of expenses. This position was certainly plausible, and when William protested, when he pleaded the danger of future war, he found but scant sympathy among a people who were not yet awake to the new conditions, and were still inclined to regard the quarrel of William with Louis as none of theirs. In January 1698, accordingly, parliament granted funds sufScient only to keep on foot 10,000 soldiers and 13,000 sailors, and William was compelled to accept these provisions.

In the meantime, William was carrying on secret negotiations with Louis, in order if possible to make a peaceful adjustment of

the Spanish succession. Beside the Bourbon princes, turn Treaty Joseph, the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, who was an

infant of five years, and the Emperor Leopold were also directly interested; and on October 11, 1698, France, England, and the Netherlands formally agreed that in case Charles II. died childless, the infant Joseph was to have Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the provinces of Spain in America and the Indies; Louis the Dauphin was to have Naples, Sicily, and the Tuscan ports with the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in the

444 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [wiluamIIL

Pyrenees; while the second son of Leopold, the Archdnke Charles, was to have Luxemburg and Milan.

The necessary secrecy of these negotiations, which had been carried on during the whole summer at William's palace at Loo, naturally aroused a good deal of suspicion in England. E^wklnd,*^ The nation was weary of war; and they thought the surest way to guarantee peace was to continue to cut down the army. In the new parliament, therefore, which had been summoned by the provisions of the Triennial Act, the Tory influence was once more in the ascendant and parliament pro- ceeded to reduce the army still further. It insisted, moreover, that Done but men of English birth should be enrolled, thus ungraciously compelling William to send home his favorite Dutch guards. The Commons further humiliated William by vigorously attacking Montague and Russell. Ultimately they compelled them to throw up their commissions, and thus broke up the Junto, which had come to be hated and suspected almost as much as the Cabal. Xot satisfied with these successes the Commons also attacked William at another tender point by appointing a com- mission to investigate the manner in which he had disposed of the forfeited Irish lands. During the session of 1699 and 1700, parliament did little else than discuss William's land grants; and finally, by the ** Resumption Bill" compelled the king to consent* to the vesting of all such land grants in the hands of parliament.

While the English parliament thus seemed bent on humiliat- ing their king and destroying the moral effect of his previous Thesecmd s^cccsses, the qucstion of the Spanish succession was tVcoIv"^ again thrown into confusion by the death of the little March] 1700. prfnco of Bavaria, and in March, 1700, a second Partition Treaty was arranged by William and Louis, in which the Archduke Charles was to have Spain, the Spanish Indies, and the Spanish Netherlands, while the Dauphin was to have Milan in addition to what had been assigned him by the first treaty, to be exchanged later for the Duchy of Lorraine. The second treaty gave little satisfaction to anybody. The emperor was not pleased with a plan which forced him to exchange Lorraine for Milan; while Louis used his influence to persuade Charles II. to dis-

1700, 1701] THB ACT OF SETTLEMENT 445

regard the treaty altogether and name as his sole heir Philip of Anjou, son of the Dauphin. The Spaniards, moreover, were specially incensed, when they learned that their old foes, England and Holland and France, proposed to dismember their empire. On November 1, 1700, a month after the signing of the will, Charles died, and on the 15th, Louis threw over the second Partition Treaty and accepted the Spanish crown for Philip. William bitterly upbraided Louis for his perfidy. But Louis paid little attention to scoldings. He had correctly calculated that in the present state of public affairs in England, it would be impossible for William to induce the nation to take up arms, and in April, 1701, William was compelled to recognize Louis's grandson as Philip V. of Spain.

While the death of Charles had thus raised again the question

of the Spanish succession, in the preceding July the death of

William of Gloucester, the only surviving son of the

The** Act of f J o

Sctuementr Priucoss Auuc, had also raised again the old qnestion of the English succession. From the point of view of the average Englishman, the question was of far greater importance than the succession to the Spanish throne. Parliament, although still Tory, took the matter in hand and in June, 1701, passed the *'Act of Settlement," by which Sophia of Hanover, grand- daughter of James I., was named as the next heir to the throne. The Act of Settlement is another important waymark in the progress of the formal constitntional law of England. Even the Tories had accepted the results of the Bevolution as final, and had virtually advanced to the ground once taken by Eussell and Shaftesbury. They had not only affirmed the right of parliament to fix the succession by law, as against any claim based upon divine right by inheritance, they had also, by making the judiciary independent of royal control, struck from the king's hands the last weapon by which he might attack the liberties of the subject. While the Tory parliament had been venting its malice upon William, and driving from office the few Whigs who still remained in his ministry, the country was already stirring with signs of reaction. On Jane 17 the impeachment of Somers, the last of the Whig ministers, broke down for lack of evidence.

IHMi

446 BEOimSTING OP PABTT BULE [wtLUAMiQ.

Ominous petitions, also, began to come to the Commons from various parts of the country, praying that ^^his majesty might be

enabled powerfully to assist his allies before it be too jacobiu late." The nation was in fact slowly coming to its

senses. The Franco-Spanish alliance threatened to throw open to French commercial enterprise, the door which Spain had heretofore closed to the whole world. Louis, moreover, had in February thrown French troops into all the Dutch barrier towns which the Treaty of Ryswick had turned over to Dutch occupation, and had coolly announced that the previous renuncia- tion which Philip had made of his claims to the French crown, was void. If more evidence were needed to assure the nation that William was right in his attitude of suspicion toward the French king, it was given by Louis himself, when on the death of James II. in September he promptly recognized the son of James as king of England. The nation took fire at what they regarded as the perfidy and insolence of Louis, and once more turned to the Whigs for guidance. The new parliament met in December and at once passed a Bill of Attainder against the new '^ James III."; and by another bill compelled all civil officers, ecclesiastics, The*'Grand ^^mbers of universities, and schoolmasters to re- litoust*^' nounce upon oath "the pretended king." William 28,1701. had already begun measures for the renewal of the struggle with France. In September, he had committed England to the '* Grand Alliance," a new coalition which was to carry on the work of the old League of Augsburg, and had sent over Marlborough with every soldier he could muster to help the Dutch hold their frontiers. But suddenly in the midst of the busy preparations for the war, the noble spirit which had foreseen from the beginning the renewal of the struggle, and had pleaded in vain for the support of short-sighted parliaments in order to Death of avert the calamity, had taken its flight. In February Varw/"* ^^^^ ^^® ^^^S ^^^ heen thrown from his horse. The 8,1702. fall itself was not serious but the sickly body, worn

out by toil of mind and vexation of spirit, rapidly succumbed to the fever which followed the shock. The conduct of the war passed into other hands, but the work of William was accomplished.

sJ£=:ii^:^ — =i

I

=:iif ^

1702] THB AOOESSIOK OF AKKB 447

CHAPTBE n

THB COMPLETION OF THE WOBK OP THE BEVOLUTION

ANNS, r7<a-J714

By the terms of the Revolution Settlement, Anne, the youngest daughter of James II., succeeded to the crown of William III. At the time of William's death she was thirty-seven Q^^^^nne. years old. She was a weU meaning, kindly natured woman, but dull and easily led, although liable to dangerous fits of obstinacy if not carefully managed. At heart she was a Tory; and yet, as with William, her position finally compelled her, if not to enter the Whig camp, at least to tolerate a Whig ministry and to support Whig measures. Thus, in spite of herself, Anne was forced to take up the work of the Revolution.

In this course, however, the new queen was directed not by any intelligent grasp of the political elements which confronted Sarah Jen- '^®^» ^^^ ^7 ^^® ambitious instincts of a clear-sighted, m7h}^'' beautiful woman, who had gained a complete ascendency ^^^^ over the mind of the princess long before she became

queen, and who steadily used her influence to advance the interests of herself and her husband, the brilliant earl of Marlborough. While Lady Marlborough reigned, therefore, the new government was committed to the policy of William, and her gifted husband, fully the equal of William in diplomacy and his unquestioned superior on the battlefield, found ample scope for the free exercise of his splendid talents as chief of the Orand Alliance.

The position of parties at home was naturally influenced by the struggle to which William had committed the nation. The enthusiasm which had elected William's last Whig oSdS^iSor. parliament and had led to a formal declaration of war on May 4, rapidly cooled when the gigantic nature of the contest began to be understood. The nation shrank from new burdens of taxation; it shrank from the new perils which confronted its commerce on the seas. The first parliament of Anno, therefore, showed very marked Tory gains. Marlborough's misplaced Tory sympathies, also, favored the gathering of a Tory ministry, so that it was not long before the weight of the

VOBK OF BBTOLtTTION COHPIiBTSD

["

increased Tory strength in the government began to be felt in the cautiouH support which the ministry gave to the war.

The activities of the English were directed at first to the Ketberlaad borders, where the French already hold moat of the MariJmmmjh Spanish territory; and Marlborongh, much to hiadig- 'im" '""^ taste, was forced to content himself with a series of 1703. nos. sieges by which he won the border fortresses. For this work, the result of two years of hard campaigning, Marlborough wna raised to ducal honors.

These early successes of Marlborough were in marked oontraet

with the fortunes of the allies in other qoartere, particularly on

the Rh ne where Austna was cut off from her iJlies

B(^«m"' ^^^ exposed to the d root attack of the French through

Bava a who by throw ng an army of French and

Bavarians around the Austrian cap tal m ght force the emperor,

the nominal head of the League, to terms, and end the war. This was Louis's plan for the campaign of the year 1704. Marlborongh saw the danger, and coolly ignoring the instructions of his gov- ernment, resolved to save the emperor at all costs. To allay the

1704 J BLENHEIM 449

timid fears of the Dutch, he made them believe that he intended to make a campaign on the Moselle, where Villeroy lay at Trier. But instead of entering the Moselle valley, he boldly pushed on to the Main, marched up the romantic valley of the Neckar and threading the passes of the Black Forest, joined Prince Eugene at Ulm, and on the 13th of August confronted the French and Bavarians at Blenheim on the Danube. Of the splendid army which Louis had massed on the Danube in the early summer, hardly 20,000, less than one-half, succeeded in getting back to the Rhine.

The immediate results of the victory were the rescue of Vienna, the expulsion of the French from Bavaria, and the clearing of Klsass and the Lower Moselle. The moral and political effects of the battle were even greater; the prestige of French arms, which rested upon fifty years of almost unbroken victory, was dispelled ; the English public repudiated the cautious policy of tlie Tory ministers and demanded a more vigorous prosecution of the war, worthy of the victor of Blenheim.

It was high time for the nation to interfere. The Tories had early taken advantage of their strength in the new government to attempt to secure permanent control of the Commons WtrluSfJe^ by the old trick of excluding nonconformists from the ScnJpSSer^ municipal corporations. Protestant nonconformists had discovered that they could evade the law by receiving the sacrament once a year according to the ritual of the Church of England, and still remain for the rest of the time in active connection with their separate congregations. As the Protestant nonconformists generally were Whigs, this custom of ''occasional conformity" had added greatly to the strength of the Whig party. Hence, if the corporations could be purged of those Whig occasional conformists, the Tory politicians might secure an indefinite tenure of power. In November 1703, therefore, Henry St. John had introduced the "Occasional Conformity Bill," which prescribed that any one who attended a Dissenting meetinghouse after having qualified for office, should be at once dismissed and heavily fined.

Marlborough had not dared to oppose the Tories openly, and

450 WOBK OF BEYOLUnOV OOHPLBTSD [An

had contented himself with secretly backing the opposition of the Whig Lords, who were strong enough to throw out St. John's bill

when it came to them from the Commons. He endeav- Armt^ ored to conceal his real sentiments and silence the cry of So^" unfriendliness to the church by persuading the queen to

surrender the annates, which the crown liad enjoyed since the time of Henry VHI. This fund, still known as '* Queen Anne's Bounty," was deyoted to the support of small benefices. The Commons, however, had guessed Marlborough's secret and took a mean revenge for their defeat by refusing to add a grant of money to his recent ducal title and by throwing every possible obstacle in his way in the prosecution of the war. Dur- ing the months which preceded Blenheim, the attack upon the duke had been specially bitter, and when the ultra Tories learned of the march into the interior of Germany, they were furious and swore that they would bring the duke to the block. A defeat, or even a partial success, would probably have put an end to Marl- borough's career then and there. Instead, however, came back the news, first a rumor and then a certainty, of the greatest victory which English arms had won on the continent since the days of Agincourt. Marlborough saw his opportunity, and by the sup- port of his wife persuaded Anne to appeal to the country. When the new parliament assembled in 1705, a powerful Whig majority showed conclusively that the nation approved of Blenheim. Marlborough, who had now drifted far from his old Tory moor- ings, hastened to put himself in line with the reaction by forming a coalition between the moderate Tories and the old Whig Junto. That he did not go further was due probably to his respect for the queen's antipathy to Whigs. For Anne was by no means a cipher in politics.

The center of interest in the war during the year after Blen- heim drifted to Spain. In 1702 the Anglo-Dutch fleet had begun

operations on the coast, bombarding Cadiz and destroy- Spaiii, ing a treasure fleet in Vigo Bay. Little, however, had

been gained until about four weeks before the battle of Blenheim, when Admiral Booke surprised and took Gibraltar. The next year, 1705, Admiral Leake strengthened the foothold of

1708-1706] BAKILLIES Ml

England on the peninsula, by defeating the French fleet, first off Malaga and again almost nnder the shadow of Gibraltar. Ijat«r, Charles Mordannt, the eccentric earl of Peterborough, made a daring hat successful attack on Barcelona, and on the basis of this SQCcesa Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia accepted the Arch> duke Charles as "Charles III." of Spain.

In the meanwhile, Uarlborongh had been left to chafe in inac-

tion by the suspicions of his Dntch allisB. But the Datch States now began to realize the mistake which they had made s^w%"iiM '^ fettering the eagle, and when the year 1706 opened, left Marlborough free to strike the enemy where he wonld. On the 33d of May he found the French army under command of Villeroy posted aboat the little Tillage of Bamillies, about thirty miles from Brassels, and by a masterly manoenver which took less than an hour and a half to cany ont, completely routed the French. He followed the scattered fngitiTes into Bmssels, and here, in the capital of the Spanish Netherlands,

452 WOBK OP BEYOLUTIOK COMPLETED [isn

proclaimed "Charles III." By the end of the campaign, of all the Spanish Netherland cities, only Mons and Namur continued to hold out for King Philip.

This auspicious opening of the year 1706 was soon followed by like successes in Italy where Prince Eugene defeated a French army at Gasale, saved Turin, and opened the way for an Austrian army to enter Naples in October and proclaim "Charles III." in the capital of Spanish Italy. Charles had already been proclaimed by Peterborough in Madrid in June.

At homo Marlborough's "composite ministry" had added still another triumph which contributed not a little to the moral weight of England abroad, by terminating the old personal union of England and Scotland and uniting the two people into one organic state.

William had been wise enough to leave the Scots to their Pres-

by terianism ; but ho had earnestly desired political union. Events,

however, instead of supportinfi^ the king or allaying the

Scotland, . . ^ i.1, c x v a • j! • lu ',

after the suspiciou of the Scots, had conspired to increase their discontent. In 1695 William Paterson, the erratic genius who had devised the Bank of England, had set afloat another scheme which was to give Scotland her share of the colo- nial trade of the world and make the promoters fabulously rich. Uis scheme was to plant a colony of Scotsmen on the Isthmus of Darion, and by securing an easy and safe transit across the isth- mus provide a far more direct and satisfactory communication between Asia and Europe than the long and dangerous passage around the Cape of Good Hope. Unfortunately for Paterson and the multitude of Scotsmen who invested their small hoardings in his project, Scotland, unaided, had neither the wealth nor the industries to set such a scheme fairly on its feet. The Spaniards, also, aroused by the threatened invasion of their rights, waged relentless war, and leaguing with the deadly climate, soon dis- pelled the dreams of the unhappy wretches who went out to gain a fortune in the new world, only to find a grave. The Scots, who could not see that the enterprise was doomed to fail from the first, were inclined to ascribe the failure to anything except the true cause, and laid all the blame upon English influence. The

1708-1706] THE UNION 458

loss of 80 much good Scotch money was followed by a paroxysm of resentment, which rapidly passed into a dangerous attitude of settled hostility to England.

The wiser leaders on both sides of the border fully realized the danger of allowing the reviving spirit of animosity to grow

unchecked, and in the interests of peace began again to ^Uniuii!^ consider seriously the question of the organic union of

the two kingdoms. The first commissioners, however, separated without results, and when the Scottish parh'ament met in May, 1703, the anti-English elements pushed through a series of articles which threatened to sever even the one slender thread that held the two countries together. The English were in no concilia- tory mood, and met threat with threat. In the autumn of 1705 parliament passed an ''Alien Bill" which threatened to take from the Scots the rights which they had enjoyed since the time of James I., by once more treatiug them as aliens. The importing of their staples, cattle, sheep, coal, and linen, was also prohibited, and the border fortresses restored and fortified. The act was to go into effect after Christmas, 1705. These acts, which portended war, brought to their senses the men of either nation who were still amenable to reason, and in April, 1706, a new body of com- missioners was appointed, thirty-one on each side. The recent prestige of English arms abroad which deprived Scotland of all hope of help from France, as well as the tact and patience of Godolphin, Somers, and Montague, carried the day for peace; and in December, twenty-five articles of union were formally accepted by the commissioners and submitted to their respective parlia- ments. By these articles the two peoples were to form one king- dom to be known henceforth as "Great Britain;'* the sovereign was to be determined as already prescribed by the Act of Settle- ment. Each new sovereign must swear to maintain the Presby- terian Church as the established Church of Scotland. The laws of trade, excise, and customs, were to be common to both king- doms; other laws of Scotland were to remain unchanged, but subject to revision by the parliament of the United Kingdom. The judicial system of Scotland was also to remain unchanged, but an appeal might be lodged from the Scottish court of Session to the

454 WOBE OF BEYOLUTION COMPLETED [Ann

House of Lords. Scotsmen, moreover, were to haye all trade privileges enjoyed by Englishmen. Coins, weights, and measures were to conform to English standards. The Scots were to have 45 representatives in the Commons and 16 peers in the Upper House, who were to be elected by the Scottish, peers at the begin- ning of each parliament. The English were to pay £398,000 with which the Scots were to pay off their national debt and close up the affairs of the Darien company. The Scots were to assume their share of the English national debt.

~~ -On January 16, 1707 the Scottish parliament accepted the conditions of union by a vote of 110 to 69 ; the English parliament Theunum accepted them on March 6. On May 1 the famous pffecud, 1707. <« Union Jack" was for the first time flung out to the breeze. The first British parliament met in October.

The union thus happily formed soon commended itself to both

peoples by reason of the substantial advantages which even the

most violent obstructionists could not fail to see. Glas-

oftiieumm gow Opened a fiourishing trade with the American col-

tO Scotland. .-ii- n .. 11 1 ,,,

onies and before the generation had passed could boast of sixty-seven vessels engaged in the American trade. The trade in linens and woolens sprang into new life. Products hitherto of little value, with new markets soon became sources of national wealth. Agriculture also assumed a new appearance, and though it failed to keep pace with the growing warehouses of Glasgow, or the shipyards of tlie Clyde, the new prosperity was felt and appreciated. Civilization followed hard upon the heels of new wealth. The people began to live in better, cleaner, and more comfortable houses. The old hereditary jurisdiction of the High- land chieftains gave way to the laws and law courts of the south. Military roads threaded their way among the mountain gorges; rocks which once echoed with the scream of the northern eagle, or the shouts of rival clansmen at slaughter, soon began to respond to the hum of peaceful factories or the shout of the plowman or the shepherd.

While Englishmen at home were thus securing the results of victory, the tide was already turning against the allies on the continent. A new element had been thrown into the scales by

1707, 1708] BEYERSES OF THE ALLIES 455

the rising of the Gastilians, who had rallied to the support of the dispossessed Bourbon and early in the year, with the help of a

new French army, brought Philip back to Madrid in theaUic8, the wake of the retreating Hapsburger. Eugene m

Italy was hardly more successful than Charles in Spain,

and even Marlborough made but indifferent progress in Flanders.

The next year, 1708, also, opened dubiously for the allies. A

threatened descent of the Pretender upon the Scottish coast

retained Marlborough in England until it was certain

paio^c}'r708, *'^*^ *'^® Stuart prince had returned again to Dunkirk. Wlien the Duke reached the Netherlands he found the towns which he had won two years before voluntarily opening their gates to the French. Ghent and Bruges had already received French garrisons, and to save Oudenarde, the duke crossed the Scheldt and on July 11 forced the French to fight him before the town. It was no such victory as Blenheim or Ramillies, but it was enough to check the advance of Louis and force him to sue for peace. France was exhausted; her resources spent; the sufferings of her people, terrible. The allies, however, sternly insisted that Louis should not only yield the chief points in contention, but that he should also send his French armies to drive his grandson out of Spain. This humiliation Louis refused to accept and once more determined upon war. The nation, suffering and burdened though it was, rallied with fine spirit to the support of the aged monarch. Something of the old national pride flashed up; and late in the summer of 1709 Louis was able to tlirow Marshal Villars with an army of 70,000 men into Flan- ders, in the hope of saving the wreck of the French border cities. Toumay had fallen, and Marlborough and Eugene were before Mons. With 80,000 men they at once advanced to meet Villars and on September 11 found him posted in a strong position at the village of Malplaquet. Marlborough won the day but it cost him 21,000 men, twice the loss of the French. The enemy, more- over, retired in good order. Mons fell, but it was the only reward of a dearly bought victory.

At home, moreover, the nation had grown weary of victories that brought no peace, and when news came of the slaughter at

456 WORK OF BEYOLUTIOlfl' OOXPLBTED [

Malplaquet, the feeling of trinmph was stifled in the horror of the *^ deluge of blood. '' The composite ministry had been replaced

in 1708 by a purely Whig ministry, in which the frfihtWhia old Junto were represented by Somers, Wharton, and

Eussell, now earl of Orford. For three years they had now conducted the war and the people justly made them responsible for Malplaquet and were willing to believe them capable of any villainy in carrying out their schemes. While matters were thns rapidly approaching the boiling point, a trivial affair, such as in ordinary times would have passed probably

without notice, brought on the crisis. Dr. Sachev- 8achei3€rtiV8 erell, a popular clergyman of Tory sympathies, in a

public address went out of his way to attack the Revolution, the Protestant succession, and the Whig administra- tion. The Whigs thought that, in consideration of the existing tension, such boldness ought not to pass unnoticed, and deter- mined to impeach the meddlesome preacher. To Anne the cham- pion of old-time Toryism was a hero, and she marked him at once for preferment. She also welcomed the unmistakable evidences of the incoming tide, and without waiting for the return of the new parliament dismissed Marlborough's friends and brought back his old enemies, Harley, St. John, and Bochester.

A marked change had also come over the household of the queen. Ilarley had placed at her side his kinswoman, Abigail

Hill, Mrs. Masham, whose gentle demeanor and quiet, c^chm *'*ctful ways, in such contrast with the explosions to

which the stormy Sarah was liable, had steadily won the confidence and affection of her mistress, and had finally dis- placed the older favorite altogether. The rupture came soon after the close of the Sacheverell trial, when the imperious duchess left the court for good. As Harley forsaw, the fall of Marlborough soon followed the retirement of his wife. With the ministry and the Commons against him, the queen's favor gone, and peace at hand, his brilliant talents were no longer needed. A host of libelers, in whose mean souls there was little apprecia- tion for the duke's greatness, set thoir imaginations to work to invent charges of peculation, fraud, and even cowardice. In vain

1711-1713] THE PEACE OF UTBEOHT 457

he attempted to make peace with the now all -powerful Tories.. His overtures only lost him the respect of his remaining Whig friends, .and enabled the Tories effectually to defeat his plans for the further conduct of the war. Yet when he returned to Eng- land at the close of the campaign of 1711, he had influence enough left to induce the Whig Lords to declare against peace. The Tory ministry, however, by the simple expedient of creating twelve new Tory peers, were able to swamp the Whig majority in the Lords, secure Marlborough's dismissal, and condemn him on a charge of peculation to the amount of £250,000.

With the fall of the duke all serious opposition to the peace on

the part of England ceased. The death of the Emperor Joseph

in April 1711, had put the main point at issue between

The Treaties _ ^ _ ' ,f. . ,. , ,. i i f»^

of Utrecht, France and the alues m an entirely new light. The Archduke Charles had not only succeeded to the hereditary domain of the Austrian House of Hapsburg, but he was also chosen to succeed his brother as emperor. It was obvi- odsly inconsistent, therefore, for the allies to continue a war which had been undertaken to preserve the balance of power in Europe, in order further to expand the already vast domain of the House of Hapsburg. The recent birth of an heir to the elder brother of Philip of Spain, also greatly diminished the possibility of Philip's ever succeeding to the French throne. The cause of the balance of power could be far better served, now that France had been seriously crippled, by leaving the Bourbon king on the Spanish throne. Accordingly, in March, 1713, the series of treaties, known as the Peace of Utrecht, were signed by the plenipoten- tiaries of all the powers concerned, with the exception of the empe- ror; the next year the emperor also made his terms with Louis. The gain to Great Britain was very great. The commercial privileges which were accorded her, alone more than compensated for the enormous debt of £34,000,000, which the war PeacK of had saddled upon posterity. The Protestant succession Great was Safe. The possession of Gibraltar and Minorca, Port

Mahon, secured the entrance to the Mediterranean. The withdrawal of the French claim to the Hudson Bay territories adjusted the balance of power in North America, although Canada

458 WORK OF BEYOLUTIOK COMPLETED [.

and the Mississippi valley were still to be fonght for. The war, also, kept France from securing a partnership in the Spanish monopoly in the West Indies ; and scored a new advantage for England in its commercial rivalry with the Dutch, by obtaining in the Spanish Indies, besides other privileges, the control of the slave-trade.

The "Good Queen Anne" did not long survive to enjoy the peace which she so dearly loved. She died August 1, 1714, a

month before the last of the treaties was signed. The Death of gain of the Tories had been substantial and their gust 1,1714. return to power, apparently, was to be permanent. In

1711 parliament had enacted a ''Property Qualification Bill," which forbade any one who did not possess an income from land of at least £600 a year to sit in the House of Commons for a county, or an income of £300 a year for a borough. The restric- tion did much to perpetuate the power of the landed aristocracy, strengthening them against the rising influence of the commercial classes; it remained unchanged until 1858. In 1711, also, the Occasional Conformity Bill became a law, and thus, for a time at least, Whig nonconformists were excluded from the boroughs. Even the extreme Tories, the Jacobites, took heart, and under the inspiration of St. John, recently made Viscount Bolingbroke, laid their plans to deliver the crown upon the death of Anne to her dispossessed brotlier. But the end came before the Tory leaders were ready to act, and George of Hanover passed quietly to the English throne.

Before Anne is dismissed, the England over which she ruled should receive a passing notice. During the seventeenth century

the population had steadily increased. London, as ^Inn?'^"^ always, was the one great city of the kingdom. The

commercial influences of the age had markedly increased the population of the great seaport towns of the south and west, yet Bristol, the second city of the kingdom, could boast of only one-seventeenth of the population of the great Thames port. In spite of its prosperity, however, London was not a pleasant place to live in. The great fire of Charles II. 's reign had offered the opportunity of securing wider streets and better drainage, and the

THE ENGLAND 09 ANNE 459

goyemment had formally commissioned the famoas architect of the Kestoration, Sir Christopher Wren, to famish plans for the new city. In the haste to rehnild, however, Wren's plans had been ignored, and in the reign of Anne the city with its teeming population of 700,000 souls was jast as dirty and nuhealthful as ever; the death rate exceeded the birth rate each year, sometimes in plague years reaching the appalling total of 80,000. The ancient watch service, the duties of which were sustained by old men whom age and rheumatism had incapacitated for ordinary labor, had long since been outgrown. Boistering young men of fashion made night hideous with their wild pranks, roaring through the streets, driving honest folk in terror into their homes, and upsetting the watch or beating him with his own staff should he attempt to interfere. Footpads lurked in the dark shadows; thieving and house-breaking were common, and robbing was fre- quently attended by murder. For, in consequence of the severe penalties which the harsh code of the day prescribed even for trivial offenses, the thief, if discovered, was generally certain to kill his victim rather than fall into the clutches of the law. The sword or rapier was a part of the dress of every gentleman ; while **your good man" went equipped with a stout oaken cudgel or bludgeon, in the handling of which he was an artist.

The condition of the poorer classes of the kingdom was far worse in Anne's reign than at the present time. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth had tried branding, ear-piercing, and whipping to stop vagrancy. Elizabeth had allowed the "tramp" to be seized and reduced to servitude by any one who should put a collar on him. Charles II. had sent his vagrants to the colonies. In Queen Anne's reign they were pressed into the army and carried off to the continent to furnish marks for French cannon. The Poor Laws of Henry VIII. as left by Elizabeth, still remained in force. Each parish was compelled to look after its own poor, keep up its "poor house," find work for those who could work, and apprentice the children. The number of "free- bom Englishmen" who were cared for in this way is startling, — 1,300,000, or one-fifth of the whole population. At the present time the proportion is about one to thirty.

460 WOBK OF BEYOLUTION COMPLETED [inn

England was still an agricultural country; the great staple

was grain. Prices depended upon the harvest, and flnctnations

were frequent and violent. In 1699 wheat rose to SGs

Ttic stctvlcs *

grain and * a quarter, but in 1702 an abundant harvest brought it down again to 25s. Wool was second in importance to grain. Even in the old Plantagenet days the English meadows had been famous for their sheep.

Manufacturing was still in its infancy, due partly to the con- servatism of the people, and partly to the crude appliances used. Edward III. had brought over weavers from the Neth- ina; wool, erlands to show his people how to manufacture their own wool. The Reformation, also, had greatly rein- forced the colonies of foreign cloth workers. Englishmen, how- ever, were loath to believe that as good cloth could be made in their own looms as on the continent, and in the sixteenth century it was found necessary for parliament to protect and encourage the homo industry by special laws. The manufacture of English cloth, thus favored, was steadily advancing. Leeds, though insignificant compared with the modern city, was already recog- nized as the center of the trade. The cotton industry was far behind the woolen, yet in William's. reign the manufacture of cot- ton was of sufficient importance to secure the prohibition of Indian muslins and chintzes. The fibre was brought from the colonies to be made up in England. In 1701 the exportation of cotton goods from England amounted to £23,000.

The coal-fields were as yet hardly laid open. Coal was used for cooking and heating, but iron smelting had to depend upon the forest oak. Sheffield was already famous for its cutlery, although the output was small. The weaving of silk, and the making of glass, paper, and hats, received a direct impetus from the thousands of Huguenots who were driven out of France by the tyranny of Louis XIV. and had brought with them to Eng- land their knowledge of these useful and important industries.

The condition of the English laborer was far below the pres- ent; yet he was much better off than his brother on the continent. His pay was lOd a day; a soldier received 8d. A French soldier received 3d. There was nothing, however, to encourage small

AUGUSTAN AGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 461

savings ; there were neither savings-banks nor opportunities for small investments. Yet the living of the laborer was good; meat was much cheaper than now, compared with the rate of wages. Tea and coffee had not yet come into common use. Wine was beyond the laborer; for bever- age his choice was limited to spirits, cider, beer, milk, or water. Beer was the favorite. The quantity consumed per annum is startling; a quart a day, it was estimated, was brewed for every man, woman, and child in England.

Tea had been brought into the country early in the seventeenth century by the Dutch, but it was still regarded as a great luxury, a gift for kings. Mr. Pepys mentions in his diary his first cup of tea as an occasion of some moment. In the eighteenth century, however, with the expansion of trade, tea- drinking extended rapidly though the price was still high, varying with the quality from thirteen to twenty shillings per pound.

Coffee entered England a little later than tea, having been first introduced at Oxford by a Cretan student just before the meeting of the Long Parliament. Its use, however, spread rapidly, and the coffee-house soon became a social power. . Anne's reign is famous for its brilliant authors. "There is probably no period so short, in which so many famous works have r/.e"^u(7t«. ^ee^ give^ ^ ^^^ ^orld.'» It has been called the Engfm ^^ ** Augustan Age" of English Literature; an Augustan literature. ^ge^ howcver, without its Augustus or its Maecenas. And yet though great patrons were not conspicuous, successful authorship had never before paid so well. Addison made his for- tune by a single poem. Pope, Swift, Defoe, all the great literary lights of the age, knew how to make themselves useful to the poli- ticians who dealt in patronage, and freely devoted their splendid talents to the party warfare of the day. Swift's Drapier Letters in 1724 forced George I.'s ministers to withdraw a project for furnishing Ireland with a new coinage known as ^'Wood's Pence," while Defoe's True Born Englishman first opened the eyes of his fellow citizens to the real greatness of William's service to Eng- land.

The introduction of Party government made the newspaper

462 WOBK OP BEYOLUTIOH COHPLBTED [Aan

necessary. The occasional pamphlet had performed a real ser- vice; but it was in every way desirable to secure a large and Early regular circle of readers in order to present the pur-

newfipapera. poses and plans of rival party leaders to the public. It was in this service that pens such as were wielded by Swift or Addison, Bolingbroke or Defoe could be of most service. Thus in 1709 was bom Steele's Tatter^ journal of literary criticism rather than newspaper, to give way in 1711 to the more famous SpecteUor of Addison and Steele. This last was a more ambitious sheet; it appeared daily and performed the work both of the modern maga- zine and the modern newspaper, combining dignified discussions of Milton's Paradise Lost, or of the ancient ballad of Chevy Chase, or reflections on Westminster Abbey, or a discussion of the Ex- change or of the Bank of England, with criticisms of the outra- geous hoops worn by the ladies of the period or of the custom of wearing patches on the face. In the next era the party organ, pure and simple, appears in the famous Craftsman.

CHAPTER III

WALPOLE AND THE FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULE

OEOROE /., 1714-1727 GEORGE II., 17/7-1742

With the accession of the House of Hanover the political waters, which had been kept stirred up for more than a genera- tion, speedily cleared. The new king was fully aware of the debt which he owed the Whigs, and without taking trouble to comprehend the English Constitution or enter into the merits of party controversy, he committed himself unreservedly to the con- trol of the Whig leaders and allowed them to fill the places of the government with their partisans. Furthermore, he knew so little English that he left the council chamber to his ministers and accepted their decisions with full confidence that they under- stood better than he what was best for the crown and best for the nation. The more violent Tories like Bolingbroke and Ormonde

DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD TOBY PABTT 463

fled to the continent. Some like Sir William Wyndham remained to gather together the wreck of the partj in the forlorn hope of holding the Jacobite wing together. But this only hastened the passing of the older Toryism. The great bulk of the party had never seriously desired the Stuart restoration. They understood full well that a Jacobite triumph wonld mean the repudiation of the national debt and the destruction of the public credit. Even the clergy and the country squire felt their ardor cool in the pres- ence of the new and vast interests of the commercial classes; interests which were not so widely divorced from their own that they could afford to imperil them for the sake of sentiment.

The story was fully told by the results of the first general elec- tion of the new reign. Barely fifty members of the old Tory fol- DiMnitai(m ^^^^g ^®r® retumcd. Bolingbroke heard the news ^JJlfTory across the channel and from his safe retreat wrote,

party, »

:March, ni5. "The Tory party is gone." It was the quietus of older Toryism, written by the man who more than any other living Eng- lishman represented its aims and its spirit. The party now had no excuse for existence, and no one saw the fact more clearly than Bolingbroke, or felt more certainly that a revival of Toryism would be not only useless but aimless. With Ormonde, there- fore, he turned to find occupation in the train of the exiled Stuart; while the men who had formed the body of the party folded their tents and abandoned the field, leaving the Whigs to quarrel among themselves over the spoils of victory.

The overwhelming character of the Whig victory and the long, unbroken tenure of Whig rule which followed, were of the great- est importance in the future history of the constitution, tumairio' in the permanent establishment of those principles for tM Whig which Bussell had laid down his life and Shaftesbury had gone into exile. In the long era of Whig supre- macy the theories of the Bevolution fast hardened into custom and custom soon passed into unwritten law. The old constitu- tion, unchanged in form, was gradually supplanted by a new con- stitution of conventions, or understandings, not recognized by the statute law, yet intrenched in the habit of political thought of the nation. Jn the theory of the constitution the executive power

464 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RITLB [a

still lay in the hands of the king, but in the new unwritten oon* stitation it was left in the hands of a small committee of minis- ters, the cabinet, who held their position by reason of the confidence and support of a majority of the House of Commons. The House of Lords, also, lost its coordinate power as a legislative body. The ministry, controlled by the Commons, and itself in control of the executive, had learned the trick of forcing its meas- ures upon the Upper House, by resorting to the expedient which the Tories first devised, of creating enough new peers to swamp the opposition; a measure which it has been hardly necessary to use since, for the threat generally has been sufficient to compel the opposition lords to acquiesce when once confronted by a united and determined House of Commons.

The supremacy of the Whig party, however, was by no means an unmixed good. The moral tone of the era was too feeble to resist the ordinary effects of overconfidence on the part of the Whig of the accredited leaders of the triumphant party. The peaceful waters of the political pool became stagnant; security bred corruption to which the local institutions of the eighteenth century all too readily lent themselves. In the coun- ties freeholders had votes ; but under the continued concentration of estates the number of freeholders was rapidly diminishing. In the boroughs the franchise was fixed by no general principle. In a few towns manhood suffrage prevailed; in more, household suffrage ; in most, the franchise had fallen into the hands of self- perpetuating corporations. The proportion of representation was even more arbitrary and irregular; an obscure Cornish village could boast of as many members in parliament as one of the great shires of the kingdom. Outside of London, Westminster, Bris- tol, and a few other towns, where some electoral freedom still existed, the local administration lay in the hands of a close oligarchy, who in the absence of any moral motive readily yielded to the control of the great Whig proprietors, and thus easily fell a victim to bribery. Parliament, moreover, always sat with closed doors; the report of its debates was forbidden, and if perchance some rumors of the nefarious log-rolling within ever got beyond the walls, a swarm of subsidized scribblers sat with pens readily

CONDITIOK OF GLEBGY 465

dipped in honey or venom to defend patrons or attack their detractors.

The clergy, which in ordinary times may be counted upon to sound the first note of warning against corruption and wickedness in high places, manifested all the moral lassitude which ^JST^. pervaded other ranks of pubKc service. The church ''slept and rotted in peace.'' The establishment was still revered as a semi-political institution ; but the clergy as a body were despised. The great landowners used their right of appointment to church livings to supply snug incomes for younger sons, who though in orders retained all the vices and faults of their class, drawing the tithes, often of more than one parish, and leaving the work to half -fed curates. Bishoprics were listed as political patronage to be gained by lobbying and intrigue, nor were the characters of the men who suooeeded in winning the prizes above the methods used. Churches were abandoned to decay; the people, left with teachers whom they had ceased to respect, or with no teachers at all, lapsed into a state which bordered on heathenism. Among the nonconformists, religious life was of far higher tone, but their number was diminishing and the old fervor cooling; enthusiasm was not popular.

Yet though morally decadent, though to the lover of goodness or greatness, a dreary wilderness where selfishness, insincerity, and cynicism reign, the era of the Georges was yet a preparation for the greater era to come. In the commercial treaties which were secured as a result of the war of the Spanish succession, and in the later treaties of the era of Chatham, English statesmen laid anew the foundations of England's commercial greatness, enlarging and strengthening the entire scope of colonial enterprise and preparing for the advent of a new England beyond the seas. Of even greater importance, both to the new England to be, as well as to the old England of the United Kingdom, was the finfd acceptance in the political creed of the nation of those principles of parliamentary government which the Whig leaders had wrought out of their great revolution. The moral life of Eng- land, moreover, was not dead, not even paralyzed; it was only sleeping, worn out, utterly exhausted by the struggle of the oen-,

466 FIRST EBA OF WHIG BULB [o]

tnry passed. England needed rest to prepare for the era of Whitfield and the Wesleys, of Wilberforce and Howard, of Bright and Oobden.

The great Whig leaders were fully represented in the first ministry of George I. Marlbormigh, the recognized chief of the The TowM' V^^Jy ^^ there, but his strength was broken and his 2S^ Soicrt splendid career virtually ended. The labor of organiz- Waipoie. ing the new government fell to younger and more vigor- ous men. Lord Townshend, as Northern Secretary of State, was virtually chief minister; with him were associated Shrewsbury, Sunderland, Pulteney, and Robert Walpole. The last, about whose career the reigns of the first two Georges center, was bom of Yorkshire parentage of good family. He had come to man- hood in the stifling atmosphere which marked the period of the later Stuarts, and had learned to suspect goodness and despise sentiment with the contempt of a hardened politician.

The parliament which met in March, 1715, reviewed and con- demned the negotiations by which the Tories had forced the Treaty of Utrecht upon the country. They also

Vindictive- 1 ^.-, » ^ . .^ . , ^ ,. , ,

nam of the passed BiUs 01 Attainder against Bolingbroke and Ormonde; while Harley, now earl of Oxford, the late Lord High Treasurer of Anne, was impeached and sent to the Tower. The prosecution, however, was without other ground than party vindictiveness, and after dragging along for two years, the case was finally dropped. A belated attempt of the

Jacfihite _ ,., ^ .0,1 T. , .^.*

risinQof Jacobites to raise Scotland in the name of 'James

1715'

VIII.," still further increased the strength of the Whigs. In England Jacobitism was dead; and although Lord Derwentwater, a grandson of Charles II., and a few country gen- tlemen took up arms in Northumberland and Lancashire, the great mass of the Tory gentry looked on with indifference, while the Whig government set itself in motion to crush the rising. On November 13, 1715 the English Jacobites were com- pelled to lay down their arms at Preston on the Bibble. On the same day the Scottish Jacobites under command of John Erskine, earl of Mar, ** Bobbing John," were effectively checked in an indecisive action at Sheriffmuir. In December, Jamof

1710-1717J THE SEPTEHHIAL ACT 467

appeared on the scene, but he had no faith in his canse and was without the courage to put himself at the head of a forlorn hope. On the 4th of February with Mar, he sailed away again, leaving Derwentwater and his companions in arms to make the easiest terms they could with the hangman.

This ill-fated and ill-managed expedition proved two things : firsty that the Jacobite leaders were utterly reckless and incom-

^ potent and unworthy of confidence; and second^ that

1^ Act!'' the English gentry did not intend to risk their necks for any Stuart Pretender; — facts which greatly strengthened the Whigs and their Hanoverian dynasty. Yet so little enthusiasm was there over the phlegmatic George 'and his ugly mistresses, that in the spring of 1716 the Whig leaders deter- mined not to risk the return of a Tory majority when the three years' limit prescribed by law should have expired, but to make sure of retaining the power in their own hands by extending the parliamentary term to seven years. The act, known as the ^^Sep- tennial Act," brought out the severest criticism; and yet, that it still remains the law of England, may be taken as fair evidence that the wisdom of a longer parliamentary term has been justified by experience.

The Whigs were destined to suffer the lot of most great parties

when left without opposition. They soon began to quarrel among

themselves; and in 1717 finally split into two factions,

Xio'lS^ty. ^^« ^^® «^¥ng around Townshend and Walpole, and the other around Stanhope and Sunderland. The cause of the quarrel was the question of the attitude which Eng- land should take toward the wars of the Hanoverian Electorate. Since the beginning of the century, Sweden had been at war with Denmark and Norway. In 1715 Denmark sold Bremen and Ver- den to the Elector George. This purchase involved Hanover in the great northern quarrel, since Denmark had only recently acquired these regions by conquest, and the king of Sweden was by no means inclined to renounce his claims. The Act of Settle- ment of 1701 had sought to protect England against complications which might arise from the position of Hanover upon the con- tinent by forbidding the king to involve England in war for his

468 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULB [o

foreign possessions without the consent of parliament. When, therefore, in 1716 George proposed to send an English fleet into the Baltic to defend his new acquisitions, he met a determined opposition in the Townshend faction. As a result, Townshend was forced out of his secretaryship, and compelled to accept the vice- royalty of Ireland, while Stanhope, who was in sympathy with the king, became the Secretary of State for the Northern Depart- ment. In 1717 Stanhope succeeded in concluding a Triple Alli- ance between England, France, and Holland, and yirtually committed England to the support of Hanover against Sweden. Townshend, Walpole, and Methuen withdrew from the ministry, and joining with the Prince of Wales, began a furious opposition in parliament against the foreign policy of the government.

Both Stanhope and Sunderland, the First Lord of the Treas- ury, were able men, and under their leadership the Whig policy Th^ Stan- ^^ undoing the work of the Tories continued even more inr^^ome vigorously than under Townshend. In January 1719 policy. they swept away the Occasional Conformity Act, and

even proposed to abolish the old Test Act in favor of the noncon- formists ; but public opinion was not yet ready to throw the door wide open, though willing to open it enough for Protestant dis- senters of easy conscience to squeeze through. Another measure of the Stanhope ministry, the **Peerage Bill,'' which proposed to take from the crown the right of creating peers at will by limit- ing the number which could be made at any one time to six, also failed, largely owing to the vigorous attacks of Walpole. The opposition had now proved its strength, and Stanhope to save himself was glad to accept a reconciliation with his old colleagues. In 1720 both Walpole and Townshend were taken back into office.

The foreign policy of the Stanhope ministry was even more thoroughgoing in its Whiggism than its domestic policy. The stanhooe Regent Orleans, who was interested in securing his own Forfion'* succcssion in case the young King Louis XV. should policy. ^[q without direct issue, was entirely willing not only

to assure England and Holland of the separation of the crowns of France and Spain, but also to pledge himself to expel the Pretender from French territory and support the Hanoverian

1718-1721] THE STANHOPE KINI8TBY 469

succession. The Spanish Minister, Alberoni, still further threw the game into the hands of the Whig ministers by seizing Sardinia in 1717, and Sicily in 1718, reopening issues once settled by the Treaty of Utrecht, and driving the emperor to cast in his lot with the Triple Alliance. Spain, like France seventeen years earlier, was now isolated; but unlike France, she had neither resources nor prestige on her side, and when in 1718 the English Admiral Byng destroyed her fleet off Cape Pesaro, with her territories invaded both by England and France, she was glad to make peace, and accept the partition of the Spanish dominions as prescribed by the Treaty of Utrecht, leaving Sicily to the emperor, and Sar- dinia to the House of Savoy.

The same good fortune attended the Stanhope ministry in dealing with the Baltic states. In December 1718 the romantic

Charles XII. of Sweden was shot before Frederikshald northern in Norway, and Sweden, no longer feared, soon dropped

back into its old position of second rate importance. One by one the northern powers made peace ; some like England passed into active alliance with Sweden against Bussia, which was already the great threatening power of the north. In 1721, Peter the Great also consented to lay down his arms, and by the Treaty of Nystad completed the quieting of the Baltic. Thus once more the policy of William had been vindicated, and equilibrium had been restored in Europe.

The complete triumph of the Stanhope ministry was now to prove its undoing. As the continual success of the allied arms

assured the issue of the Spanish war, and Englishmen 8ea 'Nibble'* ^®g*^ ^ Understand that the House of Hanover had offhe^^^^ come to stay, public confidence increased rapidly, and ministry ^° ^^® assuraucc of good timcs coming, a feverish

desire to get in ahead of the tide by means of happy investments took possession of the people. When, therefore, in 1719, the directors of the South Sea Company came forward with a scheme to buy up the outstanding securities of the government to the amount of £32,000,000, paying the present holders in South Sea stock, and agreeing to a reduction of the interest from seven and eight to five per cent, and after 1727 to four per cent,

470 FIRST EBA OF WHIG BULB [g

Aislabie, the Lord Treasurer, eagerly accepted the proposal- and consented to use the influence of the goyemment to assure the public of the prosperity of the company, or in modern phrase to **boom" its stock, in order that the present holders of the govern- ment annuities might be induced more readily to exchange these safe investments for South Sea stock.

In 1720 parliament gave its approval and South Sea stock at once rose enormously. Its shares jumped from £100 to £1,000. _ , The fever of speculation seized the public, and disap-

The raising .ii,.TT .., ,/«^.i.

0/ the pointed Didders, not to be baffled in their eager expec-

tation of sudden wealth, plunged into all kinds of "wildcat" schemes of turning speedy fortunes. The South Sea Company began to fear for its own credit, and attacked some of the **bubble companies" as illegal. Then the reaction came, and the whole ediflce of cards came tumbling down. South the stanhope Sea stock **slumped" from £1,000 a share to £135. Universal panic and distress followed. Many rogues had profited ; but many honest people had been caught and saw their property swept away of a night. The government in par- ticular became an object of general execration. The Stanhope ministry was attacked. Aislabie was expelled from parliament upon a charge of * ' infamous corruption. ' ' Stanhope, while defend- ing himself in the House of Lords, fell down in an apoplectic fit and died next day. Sunderland was charged with corruption, and although acquitted was compelled to retire.

Walpole and Townshend, fortunately for themselves, were not

members of the ministry when the scheme was first set on foot.

Walpole had openly denounced it, and sought to expose

^2J^^ov^* its folly. Men who had been deaf then, now turned

J^^fw- .?*'«'• to him for assistance. He was made First Lord of the

pfflc saves

Ihewrcck, Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Townshend was advanced to Stanhope's position of Secretary of State. The new ministry set to work to restore pub- lic credit. The directors of the company were compelled to for- feit £2,000,000 from their private estates; the government renounced its claims to a promised bonus of £7,500,000, most of which had not yet been paid. Thus the company, by meeting its

1721-1780] walpole's POLIOT 471

debts, was enabled to continue its legitimate line of business and was soon again upon a solid basis. The goyemment regained the public confidence and quiet was restored.

Of the men* to whom the administration was now entrusted Walpole was unquestionably the ablest. He understood commerce and finance, and clearly grasped the importance of p(^!^^ *' making the exportation of English manufactures, and the importation of the commodities used in the manu- facturing of them, as practicable and easy as possible.'' In 1721 he induced parliament to admit thirty-eight different articles of raw material free of duty. The following year he abolished upwards of a hundred export duties. Upon some raw materials, as silk, he allowed a rebate when exported again in the manufac- tured form. lie also allowed the colonies to import lumber free. In 1730 he permitted the Garolinas to export their rice to any part of Europe ; and shortly the rice of America, which before could be sold only in the mother country, drove the rice of Egypt and Italy from the European market. Above all, he realized the full importance of peace to any durable national prosperity.

The increasing prosperity of the country soon justified the soundness of these measures. The annual exports of England doubled in thirty years. In George II. 's reign the WaipoU'8 exports of Pennsylvania increased from £15,000 to half a million. The trade of Jamaica at the close of the century equaled that of all the American colonies put together at the beginning of George I.'s reign. The other colonies shared in this prosperity in accordance with the importance of their products, and began to pour a new wealth into the lap of the mother country. The increase in population, also a symptom of prosperity, kept pace with the development of new sources of wealth. Manchester and Birmingham doubled in a generation. Liverpool sprang at one bound, — it sounds like a tale of the American west, — from an unknown country town to the third port in the kingdom. Land, also, increased in value and rents rose proportionately. In Burke's time rents had risen fifty per cent over the prices which had prevailed at the beginning of the cen- tury.

4?2 FIRST BBA OP WHIG BULB [oi

The same soand businesslike principles were applied to the management of the several offices of the government. In spite of

the increase of wealth upon all sides, the most rigid the admin- economv was followed in the erpenditnre of fmids; the

debt was steadily reduced and taxes lessened wherever possible. At the death of George I. in 1727, the public debt had been reduced by £20,000,000.

After the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, the remaining years of the first George's reign passed quietly enough. When

the machinery ran so smoothly and so noiselessly, there ^^^7i. ^^^ little for parliament to do ; less for the professional

agitators. In 1722 another Jacobite plot was un- earthed, known as the Atterbury Plot, from one of its principal promoters, Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Bochester. But although many arrests were made and the Habeas Corpus Act was sus- pended for a year, there was only one execution. So profound was the sense of security that Bolingbroke was permitted to return the next year.

The accession of George II. in June 1727 made little differ- ence in the drift of English politics. The new king was a vigorous

hater, **full of fire and temper," and an utter ** stranger cession of to benevolonce. " He had hated his father while he

lived; he hated the English as a race of ^'king killers and republicans." He hated his father's great minister, and thought to get along without him. But his clever wife, Caroline of Anspach, an honest, true-hearted woman, who understood the English as her husband did not> and knew the value of Walpole, used her influence so wisely, that the second Townshend ministry was continued virtually without a break.

Since the collapse of the Stanhope ministry, Townshend had in the main continued to direct foreign affairs. His course, how- ever, had not run over smoothly. The proud Elizabeth Townshend of Famesc, whom Carlyle has dubbed the ** Termagant ^ of Spain," who ruled not only her husband but his kingdom as well, smarting under the humiliation of Spanish defeat, in 1725 succeeded in persuading the emperor to enter into an alliance with Spain against France and England, with the two*

1725] TEE LEAOUE OF HANOYEB 478

fold object of striking at England's commercial supremacy in India and China by bolstering up the Ostend East India Com- pany, and of robbing England of her gains in the Mediterranean by recovering Gibraltar. The reply of Townshend was the counter League of Hanover, in which England, France, and Prussia, joined later by Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, united to confront the new union of Spain and Austria. Walpole had opposed the League of Hanover, and with Cardinal Fleury, the able minister of Louis XY., continued to struggle for peace. But Townshend soon had a vigorous and noisy following; in 1730 the tension became so great that George had to decide which of the two ministers should be retained. He held on to Walpole, and Townshend retired to his country seat in Norfolk, — forsaking politics for turnips.

The war cloud which had been raised by the Treaty of Vienna soon blew over. Gibraltar was besieged for a time by the Span- _ iards, and an English fleet blockaded Porto Bello in

The war ^ ., . . w.i i i

cinuddi»' South Amcrica. The emperor, however, became satis- fied that his Ostend plan could never succeed in the face of the hostility of the sea powers; while the scheming of Spain in the Mediterranean roused his fears for his own Italian possessions, so that he was far more inclined to fight Spain than assist her against England and Trance. He had a project, also, which was much nearer to his heart than even the Ostend East India Company, and that was the succession of his daughter, Maria Theresa, to the undivided Hapsburg possessions. In return, therefore, for a promise of supporting her saccession, which had already been legalized within the empire by a Pragmatic Sanction, the emperor consented to yield the point of dispute which had arisen between him and Elizabeth of Farnese over the succession of her son Don Carlos to the Duchies of Parma and Treaty of Piaccuza, and the next year, 1731, the Second Treaty of Vienna, concluded by the emperor with England, Holland, and Spain, laid the trouble which the First Treaty of Vienna had raised.

The dismissal of Townshend left Walpole the unquestioned head of the ministry. William and Anne had been compelled to

474 FIRST ERA OF WHIG BULB [oi

adopt the policy of secaring a ministry in touch with the prevailiiig spirit of the Commons, bat in both cases the sovereign had re- mained the head of the ministry. Under the Hano- theflrst yerian princes, however, it became necessary to find a substitute for this royal head by exalting to the position of supreme authority within the cabinet, one minister who for the sake of harmony and unanimity should be allowed virtually to select his colleagues, and should be responsible for the conduct of their departments as well as his own. The principle of collective responsibility to parliament was not yet understood nor insisted upon, and for a long time to come parliament continued to deal with individuals rather than with the cabinet as a whole. And yet as the first to insist upon the principle of political unanimity and of active cooperation within the ministry, Walpole is justly called the first British Prime Minister.

The practical wisdom of Walpole is shown in nothing so clearly as in his management of the much vexed question of toleration. waipou^s Although he supported the repeal of the Occasional ^^pt'^ Conformity Act in 1719, he was not inclined to go toleration, further, but contented himself with securing the Annual Indemnity Act, by which the government virtually con- nived at violations of the law on the part of nonconforming oflSce- holders. Twice he refased to support a measure designed to repeal the Test Act, and in 1736, he withdrew a bill which pro- posed to relieve the Quakers of the disabilities under which they had so long and so unjustly suffered. Yet the spirit of toleration was steadily growing. In 1736 the death penalties for witchcraft were abolished. In 1732 the Protestant refugees from Salzburg and Cambray were received with open arms, and the next year Oglethorpe was permitted to establish his philanthropic colony in America.

Walpole himself was too much of a worldling to show any active sympathy with the more direct phases of religious or reform- Furthcr ^^^ activity. He was far more deeply interested in the formf^'r/fe hcttcring of the commercial life of England, and was Exdsc BUI. steadily feeling his way to more scientific methods of eecuring national revenues. In 1733, he proposed to reduce the

1788, 1784] THB EXCISE 475

direct land tax from four shillings on the ponnd to oiie, and to make up the deficiency by an excise on salt. The same year. The excise *^®^» ^^ proposed to apply the excise principle to wine Toimcw^^ and tobacco; that is, instead of collecting the duties proposed. ^t scaports when the goods entered the country, customs^ he proposed to collect the duty when the goods were distributed within the country, the excise. But, unfortunately, ever since the era of the Rump there had existed a latent prejudice against the excise. A vigorous opposition, also, had grown up around Bolingbroke and other reconstructed Tories, known as the Con^ stitutional or Hanoverian Tories^ who now made the most of their opportunity, and after a bitter struggle of three weeks, in which Walpole's majority sank from sixty to seventeen, forced him to withdraw the obnoxious though wise measure.

In the defeat of the Excise Bill the new Tories scored their first great triumph, and in the general election which followed in Orowingim' ^^^^ ^^®y proceeded to make the most of it. The ^^oppo-^^ numerical gain in parliament was slight, and yet they siwm. ^ere able to bring their ideas more definitely and

clearly before the country, the chief of which was that the king ought to be the king of the nation, and not the tool of a party, and that the business of the state ought to be in the hands of a group of the best men of all parties and not of one man. From Bolingbroke's famous pamphlet. On the Idea of a Patriot King, the opposition got the name of ^'Patriots;'' not a bad name for a party who were bent upon making capital by parading senti- ment as against the cold-blooded commercial motives which had thus far guided Walpole in shaping public policy.

In 1736 the ministry was further annoyed by disturbances in Scotland known as the **Porteous Riots," which grew out of the

The**Gin **^^^ -^^^" ^^ ^^^^ y®*^* ^^ ^'^^^> ^*^^ Methuen, the PortMu* ^^ English minister at Lisbon, had succeeded in persuade Ri4}U, 1736, ing Portugal to join with England in a sort of reci- procity treaty, in which Portugal agreed to allow English woolens to be admitted to Portugal duty free, and England agreed to allow Portuguese wines to enter with a duty always one-third less than the French wines. As a result of this treaty the heavier port

476 FIRST EBA OF WHIG BULE [a

wine Tery soon supplanted the light French clarets as the drink of the English gentry, and had not a little to do with the hard drinking of the fashionable set of the eighteenth centnry. The laborer, however,, who was not to be behind his betters, found solace in his gin, which could make him just *'as drank as a lord,'' and for far less money than the fashionable port. The general low state of morals, also, helped to increase the popular vice of the era. In the hope, therefore, of checking somewhat the use of high spirits, as well as to make an article of such com- mon consumption a source of revenue, by the Gin Act the govern- ment sought to impose a heavy license upon the sale of gin. The people did not take to the new act kindly. In Edinburgh when an illicit seller named Wilson was executed, the crowd attacked the city guard with stones. Porteous, the captain, gave the order to fire. Several of the populace were killed. Porteous was tried for murder and condemned to death, but reprieved. The mob then stormed the prison, and lynched the impetuous captain. Walpole compelled Edinburgh to pay to the widow an indemnity of £2,000.

In the meanwhile, Walpole had ample opportunity abroad to carry out his peace policy, which virtually amounted to the old The War of ^^^7 Policy of noninterference. In 1733 there broke s^ucc^um ^^^ upon the continent another one of those lamen- 17331735, table succession wars which wrought such havoc in Europe during the first half of the eighteenth century; this time the quarrel was over the Polish succession. Walpole, in spite of the solicitations of Eussia and Austria, stoutly held aloof; and while Austria, Germany, and Eussia were bending all their efforts to crush the Bourbons, Walpole could boast that among the fifty thousand slain not an Englishman was to be numbered.

In 1735 the War of the Polish Succession came to a close and the Third Treaty of Vienna once more adjusted the rival claims

Ei<tranae- ^^ ^^® European states. The close of the Polish war, Enaimid however, left Walpole to face a dangerous issue of his

""^^ and

and France, qwu, in which England was to appear not as second but as principal. Since the death of the Eegent of Orleans and the birth of an heir to Louis XV., France had drawn away from

1788-1740] THE AUSTRIAN 8UCOE88IOV 477

England and once more approached the other branch of the Bour- bon family. While the Polish War was in progress, the two Bourbon governments had entered into a solemn compact, known sometimes as the ''Treaty of the Escurial" and sometimes as the *' Bourbon Family Compact," in which Spain agreed to assist France in case England took sides with Bussia and Austria in the Polish War, and France pledged to join Spain in opposing the further commercial expansion of England. When the Third Treaty of Vienna freed the hands of the Bourbons, Spain prepared to carry out the terms of the Family Compact. She complained of yiolations of the Treaty of Utrecht by the English merchant- men, who had deyeloped a profitable smuggling trade in the Span- ish Indies. English merchants on their part complained of the tyranny of the Spanish customs patrol, and of the seizing and searching of English ships. A merchant captain, named Jenkins, carried about with him his ear, done up in cotton, as a trophy of Spanish brutality. Popular feeling ran high, and in 1739 Walpole was at last compelled very much against his will to declare war against Spain.

The Spanish War, however, was soon forgotten in the prospect

of a greater struggle, which was precipitated by the death of the

emperor in October, 1740, and the immediate outbreak

succesifian, of War between Austria and Prussia. The sluggish

T740* *^vi'

way in which Walpole had conducted the Spanish War, the barrenness of the war of events, the well known peace policy of the minister, and his virtual abandonment of Austria, the old ally of England, were now used by the opposition with telling force. The general election of 1741, in which Thomson's Rule Britannia^ with its refrain

'*Britons never, never, never shall be slaves/'

Fall 0/ P^^y^^ "^ important part, went against the government

waivou, to the extent that the Walpole majority was cut down to sixteen. When the new parliament met in Decem- ber, a determined struggle was begun against the now unpopular minister. He was still strong enough to prevent an impeach- ment; but the strength of the opposition proved to him that it was impossible longer to control the House, and in February

478 THE OCBAN EMPIBE SECURED [

1742, he resigned. The king stood by him to the last, and npon his resignation raised him to the peerage as earl of Orford. His day of usefulness, however, was gone. He had long suffered !rom ill-health and surrived his fall only three years. He died Ji 1745.

CHAPTER IV

THE PELHAM8 AND PITT. THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED

OEOROE IL, TJiZ-rJm

OEOROEin., neo-nes

The fall of Walpole was the signal that the age of cynicism was at last drawing to its close. The Patriots had appealed to the quickening belief of the nation in goodness, and eanceoffaii although to the older members of the group, the hard- ened politicians, this ostentation of patriotism was little more than a new trick of the game, the people were coming to believe in the disinterestedness of their leaders, and had loyally answered their appeal.

Outside of parliament there were many evidences of this bet- ter life of the nation, where the people were profoundly stirred by the preaching of John Wesley and his coadjutors, ^Sr* Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. The clergy of the day, accustomed to the sober and decorous, but lifeless methods of the generation past, could not understand these new voices crying in the wilderness, and refused to allow the preachers to use their churches. Then the Wesleys turned to the fields, the ''byways and hedges," and began those tireless missionary journeys over the land by which they stirred England as she had not been stirred since the early days of the Reforma- tion. Sometimes they were hooted and pelted by brutal mobs; often they were in danger of their lives; nevertheless they perse- vered, tireless in their efforts to awaken England to a better life. Wesley, however, was far more than a mere religious agitator. He saw with a statesman's insight, that what had been won could

1780-1791] JOHK WESLEY 479

be retained only by organization, and accordingly began to lay the foundation of an organized society, the members of which were soon F'mndatum ^nown as **Methodi8ts." The organization grew rap* %ethodi8t ^^^y > ^^ usefulness expanded and deepened with every Church. year. At the time of John Wesley's death, 1791, it numbered more than a hundred thousand adherents. Wesley himself did not wish to break with the mother church ; but it was no longer possible to keep the new wine in the old bottles, and soon after his death the Methodist body withdrew entirely from the established Church. In Scotland and Ireland, where religious conditions differed widely from those in England, Methodism received little encouragement, but in the new world it readily found a home ; and here foundations were laid, deep and broad, upon which the modern American Methodist church has since grown up.

Great as were the direct influences of the Methodist move- ment, its influence outside the ranks of Methodism proper was even greater. The English clergy felt the general ton- JjgJ2d2m^ '^^S ^P o^ *'^® religious atmosphere; the gambling, fox- hunting, absentee clergyman of the age of Sterne gave way to men like Toplady, the author of Rock of Ages^ or John Newton, the "converted slave-dealer." The open profligacy that had disgraced the upper classes, began to hide its face; literature ceased to be foul, and with a new inspiration became itself an instrument of further progress. The new life breathed a spirit of unwonted philanthropy into English society, invading the prisons, and recognizing the rights of the victims of justice. It invaded the penal codes as well and infused here a clemency before unknown to English law. Even the black man was not forgotten, and the movement set on foot which was ultimately to result in the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. The state, also, found itself confronted with a new duty in the educa- tion of the masses and the protection of the victims of commer- cial greed.

It is not necessary to enter into the "tangled web of armed law suits," known as the War of the Austrian Succession. In order to understand the position of England and the results attained, it is sufficient to state the general motives of the war. The

480 THE OCEAN EKPIBE SEOXrBBD [f

emperor, Charles VI., died in October, 1740. He was without suryiying male issue; but by the law of the empire and the guar- Engiandand ^^^^^ot Europe, the Hapsburg dominions were to pass me AwtrLn ^^ ^^^ daughter Maria Theresa. The temptation, how- Suecesaum, ever, offered by a possible dismemberment of Austria was too strong for the princes who could advance any claims to Hapsburg territories, and within two months of the death of Charles, an appeal was made to arms.

Frederick II., the young king of Prussia, set the ball rolling by invading Silesia in December, while the next year, Charles

Albert, elector of Bavaria, who claimed the whole of voivedin the Hapsburg dominions, began war on his own

account, having first drawn most of the German states into a league with France against Austria. Maria Theresa, on the other hand, had found a ready ally in Bussia, whose sovereign was not pleased by the threatened increase of Prussian strength. To prevent Russia from attacking him in the rear, Frederick had by French influence succeeded in getting Sweden to attack Bus- sia. In May, Spain also joined the Bavarian league and agreed to attack the Austrian possessions in Italy. Finally in January, 1742, the elector of Bavaria obtained the imperial crown as Charles VII. Thus the attack of Frederick upon Silesia had within eighteen months arrayed all Europe in two hostile camps.

The pot was thus well boiling, when in February, 1742, Walpole retired to the peerage, and Lord Carteret assumed direction of the

foreign policy of England, and although England still invoivM had the war with Spain on her hands, plunged into the

m61ee. The influence of this new accession of strength to the Austrian cause was at once felt. In August the English Admiral Mathews destroyed a Spanish fleet in the harbor of Saint Tropez, effectually preventing Spain from interfering with Aus- tria in northern Italy. The indomitable queen, who had pacified Frederick by the cession of Silesia, with renewed energy turned upon the French and Bavarians, who had recently entered Bohe- mia, and by the end of the year had expelled them and regained control of the country.

1742, 1748] THE AU8TR0-8ABDIKIAK TBKATT 481

The next year opened with even more signal snccesaes for the Anstrian and her allies. In 1742 she had stood at hay behind her boundaries. She now assumed the offensive, enter- UonaqTms. ^^S Bavaria and driving Charles from his own Elec- torate, while an army of English, Hessians, and Hanoverians beat the French at Dettingen on the Main. As a result of these successes, Germany was cleared and an Austro-Eng- lish army held the line of the Bhine.

Thus far, Carteret*s programme had been carried out with results that Marlborough might have envied. But unfortunately he _ was not satisfied with simply vindicating the integrity of

The AustrO' o j

Sardinian the Hapsburg inheritance; he proposed to complete the temberjs, humiliation of France by forming against her a counter

league of England, Austria, and Prussia. Carteret's scheme, however, instead of humbling France, simply sent all Europe into a turmoil again, and postponed peace indefinitely. Spain drew nearer to France, renewing the Family Compact, and agreeing to make common cause with her against her enemies, while Frederick, ever suspicious of Austria, not only again took up war on his own account, the second Silesian War, but in May with other German princes formally joined the Franco-Spanish league. At home, also, a serious reaction set in against Carteret. Public con- fidence in his judgment and ability as a leader was shattered. The minister, moreover, was personally disliked for his imperious ways, and what little influence he had left, rapidly waned before the onset of the Pelhams, who seized the moment to get rid of their unpopular colleague.

Although the new ministers had come into power as a protest against Carteret's war policy, they were forced for a time to

shoulder the burden of the war, nor were they more igtryand successful. The westcm Netherlands^ which the

Treaty of Utrecht had given to Austria, as usual pre- sented a tempting point of attack to France. Maria Theresa was so busily occupied with Frederick, that she was compelled to entrust the defense of these territories to her allies, and thus threw the burden of saving the Austrian Netherlands almost wholly upon England. The Dutch were in no condition for war:

48S THE OCEAN EMPIRE 8B0UBSD [•

the barrier fortresses, which had been entrnsted to their keeping, had fallen into decay, and their armies were far from a war foot- ™ „ ..V i^S' Of the eight fortresses four fell in five weeks, and

Fall of the °, _ , °_ _ _ ., , _,, '

^rrierfor- while Louis X V. marchcd south to save Elsass from andjidy, an attack of Charles of Lorraine, Marshal Saxe began

the siege of Toumay. The allies aroused themselves, and in May, 1745, George II. 's son, William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, advanced with an army of English, Dutch, and Hanoverians, to relieve the city. They were met by Saxe at Fontenoy on the 11th and suffered a serious repulse. Toumay, Ghent, Ostend, and other Netherland towns fell to the French as the spoil of victory. The cause of the allies had fared no better in the fighting in Germany. In 1744 Charles of Lorraine had been driven out of Elsass and gradually forced back across Bavaria. In October, Seckendorf had entered the Bavarian capital and restored Charles YII. to his ancestral estates. In June of the next year, Charles of Lorraine fell into the hands of Frederick at Hohenfriedburg and was driven out of Silesia; on September 30, he was again beaten at Soor in Bohemia, leaving Frederick to punish Saxony for its temerity in joining his enemies.

The next year the purpose of the ministry to end the war was quickened by an attempt of Charles Edward, son of the Pretender,

^^ James III.," to raise Scotland and invade England. u&iraw8 Although the prince was compelled to retire from Eng- nenuiiwara, land iguominiously, because the English Jacobites

would not join him, the new danger coupled with the recent humiliation of English arms at Fontenoy increased the disgust of all parties with the useless war, and on December 25, in the ** Convention of Hanover," England made her peace with Prussia and left Maria Theresa to fight out her quarrel by her- self. The struggle with France in the Netherlands still lingered on until 1748, when the Treaty of Aachen restored the old status quo, — England giving up her conquests by sea and France her conquests by land. The quarrel of England and Spain was also included in the Aachen settlement, but the two governments con- tinued to bicker over the question of indemnity until 1750, when the Treaty of Madrid finally settled the long-time trade quaneL

1700-17S8J THE PELHAM HINI8TBY 488

The attempt of Charles Edward was the last effort of the exiled Stuarts to regain the throne of James II. He had retired

from England in December to be overwhelmed by the jaco^uigm. ^^^^ ^^ Cumberland at Culloden in the following

April. His Highlanders were hunted down by the sol- diers of Cumberland, who did their work so thoroughly, that their leader was known ever afterward as ^'the Butcher. '' Charles himself fled from Culloden to reach France in the autumn. He died at Some in 1788. His brother, Cardinal Henry of York, suryiyed him until 1807. With his death the direct line of the ^^egitimate Stuarts" ended. The Highland chiefs were com- pelled to surrender their hereditary jurisdictions. The people were forbidden to wear the tartan. Feudal Scotland passed away and 'Hhe sheriff's writ soon ran through the Highlands with as little resistance as in the streets of London."

After the Treaty of Aachen the Pelham ministry moved on quietly enough. The public debt had reached the unprecedented

sum of £78,000,000; but in 1750 Pelham succeeded in ministry and reducing the interest from four and five to three per

cent, thus greatly diminishing the annual burden. By reason of this saving the government was able to devote some funds to the encouragement of learning; a measure which resulted in the acquisition of the collections which have formed the nucleus of the British Museum. Pelham, also, sympathized with Walpole's policy of religious toleration. In 1751 an effort was made to secure a bill for the naturalization of the Protestant French refugees who, upon the renewal of persecution by the French authorities in 1750, had begun again to flock to England^ In 1753 a bill was passed by which resident Jews were to be naturalized. In the next session, however, owing to a revival of popular prejudices, encouraged by the jealousy of British mer- chants, it was repealed. In 1751 Chesterfield introduced his 'Calendar Bill," by which the New Style j as the Gregorian calen- dar was called in England, was made legal. By this bill the English year was to begin henceforth on January 1 instead of March 25, and the eleven days between September 3 and Septem" ber 13 inclusive were cut out of the Calendar.

484 THB OCBAK BHPIBB SEOITBBD [c

In 1751 the death of Frederick Prince of Wales greatly weak- ened the Whig opposition, and the king felt himself strong enough to compel the Pelhams to allow Earl Granrille to return as Presi- dent of the Council, while Bedford, the Southern Secretary, gave way to Holdemesse. On March 6, 1754, Henry Pelham closed his long and useful career. He had been a timid man. But his timidity had served him a good turn; for it led him to surround himself with a corps of able men, who imparted an unwonted solidity and strength to his ministry.

Thomas Pelham, the duke of Newcastle, succeeded to Henry Pelham's place as First Lord of the Treasury. After a brief trial of Sir Thomas Bobinson as Secretary of State, the posi- u^muSSS^ *io^ ^as given to Henry Fox. The new ministry, how- ever, was already sailing in troubled waters. France and England, so effectually kept apart at home by the Channel, 'Hhe accursed ditch" as Maria Theresa had called it, were already beginning to crowd each other along their outposts in the new world and in India.

England's American colonies had been growing rapidly during the century and their population already mounted up to nearly cmduifmof o^^e-fo^rth of that of the mother country. Their ir^thewi^ Wealth was increasing even faster than their popula- v^^ tion. In the northern colonies this wealth was still

pretty evenly distributed. The democracy of wealth was also attended by a democracy in education; illiteracy was virtually unknown. In religious beliefs the colonists varied widely, bat their differences took on nothing of the political pugnacity of the old world. The mother country had for the most part left them to themselves, content to monopolize their trade with the old world. The colonists were satisfied ; the right of monopoly was the commonly accepted doctrine of Europe, and restriction in trade was fully compensated by the protection which the colonists enjoyed as British subjects. They led a free and independent life, proud of their institutions and proud of their birthright as Englishmen.

From the first the relation of the English colonists to their French neighbors had been one of suspicion. Each new outbreak in

ITIMH thb kew world 486

Europe had had its echoes in the western wilderness, where the

three great wars which had followed the Revolution were known

respectively as "William and Mary's War," "Queen

France in uie Anne's War," and "King George's War.'* Heretofore,

new toorUU » o o »

however, these colonial wars had been largely sym- pathetic and had no real occasion in conditions existing in the new world. But soon after the Treaty of Aachen the French begaix to show alarming signs of making good their claims to the great Mississippi basin by assuming an aggressive attitude towards the few English colonists who had had the hardihood to penetrate the Alleghanies and settle about the upper streams of the Ohio and the Kentucky. The English ministry were not blind to the signifi- cance of these encroachments and encouraged the colonial gov- ernors to assert their claims to the disputed territories. But the feeble showing of an attempt of Virginia to reduce Fort Duquesne in 1754 satisfied the home government that its active assistance was needed, and the next year it dispatched an expedition under General Braddock to accomplish what the colonists had failed to do in 1754. The British officers, however, unacquainted with frontier fighting, were no match for the French and their Indian allies, and on July 9, Braddock was ambuscaded and lost more than half of his little army of fifteen hundred men. Thus Eng- land once more saw herself confronted by war with France.

The outlook was gloomy enough. The ministry, in accordance with the old-time policy, had already begun to cast about foi alliances in the other courts of Europe. ' But in their Years' War efforts to savo Hauovcr by securing the neutrality of ^^ Prussia, they managed not only to lose Austria and

make an enemy of Russia, but in the end to bring about a general coalition for the dismemberment of Prussia. Moreover, while the ministry were thus botching the whole matter of a foreign alli- ance, little was done to prepare for the immediate strain of the war; not only were incompetent men left in command of the fleets, but when 1756 opened, the government did not have tb '^ regiments in England that were fit for service. France, ' *^ ®

other hand, with a vigor and energy that reminf^." !' ^^ , . ,

J ^T • VTTT i. 1 -f n %;iiticians of his day;

days of Louis XIV., was not only fully prep* , , ^, ^ ^

•^ i# ^ x- x^^^gj jjj^y^ |.j^^ steady

486 THE OOEAK BHPISB SBOUSBD [owmbIL

promptly and swiftly to take fall advantage of the dilatory Eng- lish ministry. In April 1756 the duke of Bichelieu began the siege of Port Mahon in Minorca, the ''key of the Mediterranean," at that time regarded of more importance than Gibraltar. Admiral John Byng, the son of the Admiral Byng who had won such honors for the English flag in 1718, was sent to relieve the garrison, but retired to Gibraltar, and allowed the whole island to pass into French hands. Evil news also came from America^ where in August, Montcalm had captured Fort Osw^o on Lake Ontario. But, if this were depressing, from India Dowiah-the came news that roused Englishmen to madness. of Calcutta,'* Surajah Dowlah had become Nawab of Bengal early in 1756. He was a sworn enemy of the "batmen" as he called the Europeans, and roused by the long struggle between the agents of the English company and the agents of the French company, which had just closed in June, he laid siege to Calcutta and forced it to surrender in four days. Happily the women had been taken on board the ships in the river and had already sailed away with the governor. But the little garrison of 146 men were shut up for safe keeping in the old garrison prison, a strong room twenty feet square and ventilated only by two small iron barred windows. Here without air or water, the prisoners were left through the stifling hours of an Indian midsummer night. In the morning only twenty-three of the one hundred and forty-sii men were alive. When the story reached England of that night of horror in the ''Black Hole of Calcutta," where strong men in the agony of suffocation wrestled in the darkness and trampled upon each other in a mad struggle to get near the two holes that served for windows, the people in their wrath turned upon the duke of Newcastle, whose incompetence they made responsible for the long series of blunders and misfortunes.

In November, Newcastle resigned, and the enthusiastic support

of the great commercial class practically forced upon the king

lill^jam Pitt, the one man whom the nation had come to look

Englib* able fx> save England from going the way of her pos-

From the fir^c^diterranean. The Whig oligarchy, however,

French neighbors haod England, were suspicious of the brilliant

1757] THE KBW0A8TLB-PITT MINISTRY 487

minister, who, although he had been in parliament since 1735, was still a poor man. His integrity was a constant rebuke to Theorganir ^^^ corrupt coUeagues, nor did he try to conceal his NiAvccu^le!^ contempt for them and their methods. The king, put ministry, also, did not take to the haughty minister, and in April, 1757 he yentured to dismiss Pitt and recall Newcastle. Then fol- lowed a bitter struggle of three months which ended at last in a compromise, in which Newcastle remained Lord of the Treasury, but Pitt and Holdemesse became the Secretaries of State.

As thus organized, the new ministry was one of great strength. Pitt, with a foresight and enthusiasm all but inspired, fully grasped the opportunity which opened before England in the direction of colonial expansion and conquest. When of the new the coolest Statesmen were gloomily discussing the loss ^' of the colonies altogether and the collapse of England's prestige among the powers of Europe, Pitt saw England rising from the struggle, her glory undimmed, her prestige unmatched, and her colonial empire without a rival. He saw too, what had been hidden from the petty politicians of his day, who had for a generation been knocking their heads together in the murky atmosphere of parliamentary quarrels, that the salvation of Britain lay in adopting a more generous attitude toward the greater Britain beyond the seas, in treating British communities every- where as members of the governing firm and not as subjeo^ peoples to be ruled as servants or to be exploited for the enricn- ment of a few monopolists at home. Nor did his lofty faith in the destiny of his country, or the fervor of his enthusiasm outrun his ability to inspire others or command the elements of success. He possessed a marvelous skill in selecting his agents. His cour- age was infectious, and no man left his presence without some- thing of his confidence. Newcastle was bad company, and it seems strange at first thought that a man of Pitt's undoubted integrity should ever consent to accept such a running matO' But Pitt's weakness lay in dealing with the House. Though called the ''Great Commoner," no acknowledged leader ever had less personal influence than he among the politicians of his day ; and yet to succeed as a minister, he must have the steail^

488 THE OOEAK EHPIBB SECURED [oi

support of the Commons. He left Newcastle, therefore, to manage the House by the old Danby methods of ''influence," of which he was an expert master, while Pitt, to use his own expression, ''borrowed Newcastle's majority" to save the British Empire.

The friendship of Prussia had as yet not been of any service to England. It had not even saved Hanover. Frederick had not Frederick ^®®^ ignorant of the purport of the diplomatic hag- PartiUon S^^^S which was going on at Paris and Vienna; he TreaUes. knew that his powerful neighbors were planning to erase his little kingdom from the map of Europe, and in order to secure the first advantage in the unequal conflict, he had deter- mined to strike without waiting for his enemies to complete their plans. In August 1756, therefore, he had suddenly invaded Saxony, taken Dresden, and compelled the Saxon army to surren- der at Pirna. Frederick's foes raised a great outcry in order to make the most of what they were pleased to style the wanton aggression of the Prussian king, and in the early part of 1757 brought to completion the several partition treaties, by which Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, Saxony, Poland, and the elector of the Palatine were to be secured each their respective shares in the plunder of Frederick's dominions. Nothing daunted, how- ever, in the spring, Frederick proceeded to strike a second blow by the invasion of Bohemia. On May 6, he won a hard-fought battle before Prague, but in June he was defeated by Daun at Kolin and compelled to withdraw. His enemies followed him into his own territories. Daun and Charles of Lorraine swept into Silesia, while a Russian army of 100,000 men poured into eastern Prussia, taking Memel and defeating Frederick's marshal, Lehwald, at Gross-Jiigersdorf on August 30. The Swedes, also, who had joined in the war, were pouring into Pomerania. The French, in the meanwhile, had advanced from the west, seizing the possessions of the Prussian monarch on the lower Rhine, entering western Hanover, defeating the duke of Cumberland at Hastenbeck, July 26, and finally driving him back to the Elbe, where they com- pelled him in the "Convention of Closter-Seven" to agree to dia- band his army altogether.

1757] FREDERICK THE GREAT ^^

While Frederick's enemies were thus pressing upon him from all points of the compass and the destruction of Prussia seemed at hand, his allies were repeating the series of failures of lishduas' the preceding year. The unlucky Byng was court- martialed and shot on his own quarter-deck, — as Vol- taire observed, ''to encourage the rest." An expedition under Hawke and Mordaunt against Rochefort ended in ignominious disaster. Loudon and Holboume set out to take Quebec but accomplished nothing. In August, Fort William Heniy, after a braye defense by the gallant Colonel Munro, was forced to capitu- late, and a part of the garrison were massacred by a lot of drunken savages who had broken away from the control of Montcalm and his officers.

It was at this darkest hour of the struggle that the unseemly quarrel between the Whig leaders was healed, and Pitt was given a free hand in the conduct of the war. Yet the first the tide, succcsses wore quite independent of any influence of Pitt or his fellow ministers. At the very darkest moment of Frederick's career, when England was paralyzed and Hanover disarmed, when his own kingdom was overrun from the east and the south, and his enemies were actually levying requisi- tions in the streets of Berlin, the cloud suddenly rifted at Boss- bach, where, on November 8, 1757, Frederick swept down upon a combined French and Austrian army of twice the size of his own and completely overwhelmed it. A month later a second victory at Leuthen recovered Breslau and saved Silesia. In the mean- while, swift sailing ships were bringing great news from India, where on the 23d of June, 1757, with a little army of 800 Euro- peans and 2,000 Sepoys, or native Indian troops, Clive had encountered Surajah Dowlah on the plains of Plassey and had completely routed his army of 35,000 foot and 15,000 horse, not only winning back all that England had lost, but permanently establishing the supremacy of the English in the Orient.

Pitt's policy was simple. He proposed to support Frederick by restoring the military strength of Hanover and by pouring English gold into the wasted treasury of Prussia, while he himself gathered all the fighting strength of the British Empire to meet

490 THE OOEAK EMPIRE SBOtTBBD [oaoMsa

France on the seas and wherever their colonial interests came into contact. Accordingly he persuaded George to repudiate the Convention of Gloster-Seven while he gathered an ™*^ army of English and Hanoverians on the Elbe under

Ferdinand of Brunswick, one of the ablest of Freder- ick's generals; in April, he agreed in a new subsidy treaty to fur- nish Frederick with £670,000 a year. In America, he planned for a grand series of attacks along the whole line of frontier. The uniform success of these enterprises vindicated their wisdom. On July 8, Abercrombie f ailed in the attack on Ticonderoga; but on the 26th, Boscawen and Amherst took Louisburg and as a result the English secured both Cape Breton Island and St. John, now Prince Edward Island. In August, Bradstreet with a colo- nial army captured Frontenac, and in November, Forbes took Fort Duquesne and renamed it Fort Pitt. In other parts of the world the same intelligent vigor brought equal laurels to the English arms. In May, the English seized Fort St. Louis in Senegal, and in December, added Goree Island off Cape Verde. Expeditions were also dispatched directly against the arsenals of St. Male and Cherbourg. The French saved St. Male, but Cherbourg and its stores were destroyed. In June, the Prince of Brunswick defeated the French at Crefeld and drove them out of western Germany. Frederick in the meantime continued to hold his own, on August 25 beating the Russians at Zorndorf on the Oder, and though sur- prised by Daun at Hochkirchen in October, finally drove the Aus- trians out of Saxony.

The next year, however, was gloomy enough for Prussia. On August 12, a combined Austrian-Russian army routed Frederick at Kunersdorf. A few days later Daun took Dresden, linden. Que- and an attempt of the Prussians to regain their lost Quibervn, ground met with a terrible punishment. Yet Freder- ick had no thought of submission, and winter found him still at bay behind his frontiers, as plucky and determined as ever, while his enemies were practically back to the point from which they had started in the spring. Moreover, if the year had gone hard against Frederick, the tide of fortune had rolled in strong for England. France had planned to match the mighty

1759] THE YEAB OF QUEBEO 401

armament which Austria and Bussia were to pour into Prussia, by throwing an army of 50,000 men into Hanover. Prince Ferdi- nand was compelled to retire before the advancing army, losing many men at Bergen on April 13. But in August, although greatly outnumbered, he confronted the French Marshals, Con- tades and Broglie, at Minden and drove them back upon the Rhine, thus once more saving Hanover. So rapidly came the victories now that Englishmen ceased to wonder; Byng and Minorca, Braddock and Fort Duquesne, were forgotten in the marvelous news that came from Madras, from Ceylon, from Guadeloupe, from Havre, which Bodney bombarded for fifty hours, destroying an entire fleet which was equipping for a descent upon England, from Lagos in Portugal where Boscawen sank the French Mediterranean fleet, and again from Quiberon Bay, where on November 20, Sir Edward Hawke in spite of rocky reefs and rolling seas, engaged and annihilated the French Channel fleet. Then the bells had hardly ceased ringing when from America came the news of the triumph of the year, the capture of Quebec by Wolfe on September 18.

I'he English had now passed from a war of defense to one of

conquest. It was Pitt's purpose to exterminate the sea power of

France and appropriate her colonial possessions wher-

thtoSji^t ®^®^ ^^®y '^^^ ^^ *'^® hands of the English. The %^'^^^^^ next year the flagging enemy was pushed more remorse- lessly than ever. On January 22, Count Lally, the son of an Irish refugee, who after the retirement of Dupleix had been made the French Governor-General of India, was defeated by Colonel Eyre Coote at Wandewash, and in 1761 the siege and capture of Pondicherry virtually ended the French occupation of the Kamatik. Although the trading stations were restored in the subsequent treaty of peace, the now well established supre- macy of England on the sea put an end to all further competition in India. England was mistress in the Orient. In America the French with their forts gone, Quebec taken, and Montcalm dead, made but a feeble resistance, and with the surrender of Montreal on September 8, 1760, the French occupation of Canada also came to an end.

^m

492 THE OOEAN EMPIRE SSOUBED \i

On the continent, however, England's ally was bogiiming to show unmistakable signs of exhaustion. Prussia could not stand the terrible strain much longer. England might continue her supplies of money, but she could not restore the young manhood of Prussia, with whose graves a score of battleAddB were fur- rowed. Prince Ferdinand kept up the fight in Westphalia, but he was forced to allow the French to winter in western Germany. Frederick himself could not turn rapidly enough from frontier to frontier to meet his many enemies, and the very moment when far away in the south he was retaking Leipsio and overwhelming Daun at Torgau, the Russians were ravaging Brandenburg and occupying Berlin.

Torgau, November 17G0, was the last pitched battle of the war on the continent. George 11. had died October 25, 17C0, and with the new king an entirely new phase was given to English politics. George III. shrank from the war of conquest which Pitt was now waging; but more serious than his opposition to Pitt*s policy of "coloring the map red," was his determination to end the long reign of the Whig oligarchy and rescue the crown from the tyranny of the constitutional conventions by which the Whigs had maintained their power. He had been nurtured in the atmosphere of Bolingbroke's **Patriot King,** and believed in his right to govern as well as his right to reign. He believed, also, that if ho would escape slavery to a faction he must place himself above parties.

From the first, therefore, the new king was opposed to the Newcastle-Pitt ministry, and was determined to end both the arma- ments of Pitt and the methods of Newcastle. His Neuv:a«ae- chief adviser was John Stuart, earl of Bute, his old ' tutor, a Tory of the Bolingbroke type, who regarded the overthrow of the Whig power of paramount importance to all other issues. In March, upon the retirement of Holdemesse, Pitt's colleague in the Secretaryship, Bute was put in his place. Between Pitt and Bute there could be no harmony, and on October 6, 1761 Pitt offered his resignation. In May 1702, upon the with- drawal of the subsidies from Prussia, which had so long formed the basis of the Newcastle-Pitt policy, Newcastle also retired.

1761-1768] THE TREATY OF PARIS 498

Thus ended one of the strongest ministries that England has

ever known; but its work was already done. In August 1761,

Spain, led by her new king, Charles III., renewed the

peaee^^hi ^^^^^J compact with France, but her assistance counted

^^^Jp^^JJ"^ little in the balance against the overwhelming superi-

g^t^iSfi76L^ ^^^^y of England. In August 1762, Rodney took Havana and in October Draper took Manila. It was evident that it was useless to carry the war further; the inter- ference of Spain had only dragged down her colonial empire with The Treaty ^^® wreck of the French. In November, preliminaries hh^lary ^^ peaco wero signed at Fontainebleau, and on Feb- jo, 1163. ruary 10 following, were finally accepted at Paris by the three western powers, Great Britain, France, and Spain. By the terms of these treaties (1) France ceded to England Canada and Cape Breton Island, the Island of Granada in the West Indies, and her possessions in Africa on the Senegal ; the Missis- sippi was recognized as the boundary between Louisiana and the British colonies. (2) Spain ceded Florida to England, having already received Louisiana from France as indemnity. (3) Eng- land restored to France Goree in Africa, the Islands of Martin- ique, Bellisle, St. Lucia, and her French conquests in India; to Spain, all conquests in Cuba including Havana. Manila was restored without any equivalent as the news of its fall did not arrive till after the peace preliminaries had been signed.

Elizabeth of Russia, the old enemy of Fredeffck, died in Jan- uary, 1762. Her successor was the young and brilliant Peter III. The Peace of ^^^ ^^^ *^ enthusiastic admirer of Frederick and burg^Ffb- fastened to transfer the support of Russia from Aus- ruary J5, 1763, tna to Prussia. But the Russia-Prussian alliance had hardly been concluded when Peter was murdered by his German wife, who succeeded him as Catharine II. and at once reversed the past policy of Russia by withdrawing from all interference in Ger- man affairs. France had long since become too weak to help Austria, and Austria alone could scarcely hope to cope with Prussia. Prussia on the other hand was bleeding at every rein and had no wish to carry her duel with Austria further. Accord- ingly on February 15, five dajs after the signing of the Treaty of

494 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [oaoMalXL

Paris, at the Saxon castle of Hubertsbnrg, Prussia and Anstria also agreed to lay down their arms. The territorial lines were restored yirtually as they had existed at the beginning of the war. But Prussia remained in possession of Silesia; her claim to rank among the great powers of Europe had been established.

Thus at last the war which had been begun by the aggression of Prance in the new world, which had destroyed the light in

hundreds of thousands of European homes, which had Seven Yean* devoured untold wealth, was ended. What had been

gained? By the powers on the continent nothing; but by England everything. Spain was allowed to get back her colo- nies, but France, who had been the cause of aU the tronble, had lost her splendid empire beyond the seas; while England at once mounted to the supremacy which she has since enjoyed as the one great ocean power of the world. Yet England also had not been without fault in the matter and her day of humiliation and punishment, coming from a source from which she least expected it, was not far off.

CHAPTER V

GEOBGB III, THE FIRST PERIOD OF TORY RULE AND THE LOSS

OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES

GEORGE m., 1763-t7t9

The sixty years of the reign of George III. is the era in which the England of the Restoration passes into the England which we

know to-day. The England of 1760 was not very reign, a trdrir different from the England of 1660. The foreign wars

of the Commonwealth and the early Restoration era had left England in control of the carrying trade which had once enriched the Dutch, The wars which had followed the Revolu- tion had also tended to enrich the commercial classes, greatly extending and deepening all channels of commercial enterprise. Manufacturing industry had grown steadily, particularly in the

1760] - THE ENGLAND OF GEOBOE III. 495

half century which had followed the death of William, and the center of population had continued to move from the region of the southern seaport towns to the new manufacturing towns of the north. Yet the great hulk of the population were still earning a livelihood in the old way, either by farming or trading. The rough goods worn by the common people were largely made in England; but production was limited by old methods. The machines which were used for making cotton goods, were hardly in advance of those used in India. The iron furnaces of Sussex and Surrey were still stoked with wood from the neighboring for- ests. There was coal in abundance stored away in the rocks, but there was no machinery by which it could be mined to advantage. The primitive means of communication still in vogue, were as serious a drawback to the development of industry or trade as the lack of machinery or coal. Goods were still transferred to or from inland towns by packhorses in the hill country or by pon- derous wains in the low country. The condition of the roads, wretched at all times, but at certain seasons altogether impass- able, added greatly to the difficulty and expense of transportation. In the early years of George III.'s reign, however, all this began to change. The flying shuttle which had been invented by Improvement ^^^^ ^^7 ^^ 1733, had doubled the productive power at3^cu!tti!^ ^^ ^^^ weaver; but the weaver was still handicapped by mawriy. the difficulties which attended the old methods of spin- ning, by which his yam was supplied. A generation passed and the art of cloth-making seemed to have reached the limit of improvement, when in 1769 a series of advances was inaugurated in the invention by a Bolton barber named Richard Arkwright, of a system of spinning by revolving rollers. The next year James Hargreaves, a weaver of Blackburn, took out a patent for his "spinning-jenny," which multiplied the efficiency of the old hand spinning a hundred fold. Nine years later Samuel Grompton combined the ideas of Arkwright and Hargreaves in his*** mule" and added the spindle carriage, which prevented the annoying breaking of threads. These improvements, used first in the manufacture of cotton, were gradually applied to woollen manu- facturing as well.

406 FIRST ERA OF TORY RITLB [obomsIIL

The first effect of these improyements in the art of spinning was to produce a great deal of anxiety and even actual distress. Yarn-making soon outstripped weaving. The spinners ofeuam to found it difficult to dispose of their products ; prices ' fell, and the old fashioned hand-spinners, unable to compete, began to be crowded out. Belief came in a correspond- ing revolution in the art of weaving, which followed the remark- able inventions that date from the year 1785. The steam engine had already been in use for some time as an adjunct to mining, where it furnished the power for the pumps. It was, however, a clumsy, impractical, primitive sort of machine, and each year cost a small fortune in fuel. In 1764 the attention of James Watt, an instrument maker of Glasgow, had been called to the machine then in use, and after ten years of vexatious disappoint- ments, he finally succeeded in making the improvements which have given us the useful machine of modern commerce. In the twenty years which followed, Watt's perfected machine came into general use, furnishing the motive power in almost all kinds of manufacturing industry, in weaving among the first. In 1785, Edmund Cartwright, a Yorkshire clergyman, took out a patent for a power-loom ; a clumsy machine at first, which required the attention of two men, even when running at a low rate, but it kept the mules busy. Later he perfected his machine, and it began to be felt as a new power in all kinds of textile industries. Afterwards he also patented a wool-combing machine which greatly improved the quality of the wool and did the work of twenty hand-combers.

The extensive introduction of labor saving machinery at once

disturbed the old industrial equilibrium. Workmen saw their

livelihood taken from them, and turned their fury upon

Social resulti - r a ' • • a

of we of the new mventions. Spmning-jenuys and power- looms were smashed by infuriated mobs. At a time when Cartwright had just received an order from a Manchester firm for four hundred of his power-looms, his factory was burned, probably the work of incendiaries, and a bill was actually presented in parliament, which forbade the use of his wool-comb- ing machine under severe penalties. The improved methods of

BB8ULT8 OF INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY 497

manufacturing, however, very soon increased the demand for labor. New enterprises invaded the quiet moorland valleys of the west and north, where the cheap coal and abundant water supply offered special advantages. Older sites, as Norwich, Leeds, and Halifax, rapidly increased their output. The population, also, naturally drifted to these centers, doubling and trebling in a very few years.

It was upon the iron trade that Watt's great invention perhaps had the most direct influence. In 1740 the entire production of England did not exceed 17,350 tons. The engine of Producwm ^^tt at oucc made the deep mining of coal practicable and thus removed the last diflSculty in the way of iron smelting. The years 1755 to 1762 saw works started in Stirling- shire, in South Wales, and in the neighborhood of Birmingham, where Watt himself became a partner in the Soho works. By the end of the century the annual output of England had reached 170,000 tons.

Other industries also shared in the new era. The cheaper manufacture of iron affected in turn every other line where iron tools or iron machinery were used. In 1763 the potteries of South Staffordshire, where Josiah Wedgewood succeeded in producing the famous '* Queens Ware," had begun to attract attention. In 1785 these potteries employed 15,000 men. In 1773 plate glass making was begun in Lancashire.

The increasing volume of trade, the shifting of population to new methods of gaining a livelihood, the changing social condi- tions, in turn demanded better methods of communi- mectupon cation or exchange. During the first fourteen years of George III.'s reign, parliament passed 452 separate acts for repairing roads. The turnpike, or toll-road, became general, and before the end of the century smooth, hard roads stretched away from all the great cities, along which stage coaches made regular and, for the time, rapid trips, carrying mail and passen- gers with dispatch and some comfort; over four hundred towns could boast of one mail a day.

One wonders that the long and close acquaintance of the Eng- lish with the Dutch had never suggested the adoption as an

ita^

498 FIRST ERA OF TORY BULB [ObombIIL

English institution of the canal, which was as well suited to some parts of England as to Holland. It was not, however, until 1761

that the islanders seriously took to canalling, when Fran- buu&na. ^^® Egerton duke of Bridgewater, with the help of the

self-educated engineer, Brindley, built a canal from his Worsley collieries to Manchester. Later he extended his canal to the Mersey, thus connecting Manchester and Liverpool, and dimin- ishing the price of coal in Manchester from seven pence per hundred to three and one-half pence. The example of the successful work- ing of this ship-canal and the profits which came to the enter- prising duke, who was thus made independent of the whims of the Mersey, were not lost upon the public. Within George^s reign nearly 3,000 miles of canals were constructed; 165 acts sufficiently testify to the interest of parliament. The chief of these great works were the ship-canal between the Forth and the Clyde, begun in 1768 and completed in 1790; the Ellesmere Canal, begun in 1793, connecting the Severn and the Mersey, by crossing the valley of the Dee over a marvelous viaduct whose arches were swung seventy feet above the river; and the great ship-canal which enabled ships to reach Gloucester from the lower Severn. These waterways were to the industrial England of the last two Georges what the railways have been to the England of Victoria, or to the America of the later nineteenth century. They furnished the means by which heavy goods, especially machin- ery, could be transported to distant points safely, easily, and cheaply.

The development of new lines of industrial activity acted directly upon the entire English social structure. The successful

operators began to combine forces ; the master work- of indmtriai man, workmff m his own cottage, assisted by one or

revolution. . \ ^ . x- 1 ^ /

two journeymen and an apprentice lad or two, gave way to the wealthy manufacturer who reared a huge factory and gathered into it a small army of men, women, and children, who toiled long hours feeding his machines while he sat in his office dividing his attention between his balance sheet and the market. The workmen were poor and ignorant; all their surroundings were brutalizing. They were without schools and without churches.

THE AOBABIAK BEYOLUTIOK 499

Their working days were spent in dreary hours of toil in dark, ill- smelling, dingy factories; their nights in shabby, ill-kept, and unhealthy brick cottages; their Sundays in the public house. Yet this weary multitude were not so sotted that they could not think. In a blind, vague way, they realized that something was wrong somewhere, but they could not tell just what or where. Hence they offered a ready field for the agitator, eagerly listening to the most dangerous and yiolent doctrines, which at least prom- ised to punish those whom they deemed their oppressors.

Side by side with the development of the industrial life of England, there was also progressing a like revolution in the agri- cultural life of the people. The causes were virtually rianrevo the Same: the increase in population, the greater demand for the products of farm labor, and the encouragement to capital to concentrate in the interests of econ- omy and larger profits. At the beginning of George III.'s reign, by the old system which had been handed down from generation to generation, the land about a village was still cultivated in com- mon. The farmers had little skill, little capital with which to keep up stock and tools, and little inducement to improve the land. Drainage was impossible ; winter crops could not be grown ; sheep and cattle were left to herd promiscuously; disease gener- ated easily; and any improvement of live stock was not to be thought of.

The increase of population, however, soon began materially to affect the demand for farm products, and not only encouraged the adoption of improved methods, but also hastened ^^^f^Jj^ the drift of capital toward agricultural industry. Waste lands were brought under cultivation; the open- field system began to be abandoned and the rights to the commons extinguished. Marling became general; a fourfold rotation of crops took the place of the old wasteful three-field system ; the culture of the turnip, com, and rye grass, was introduced. Sci- entific methods of breeding also were adopted. In 1785 the famous Leicestershire sheep appeared, "giving two pounds of mutton, where there was only one before." The long horned "Dishley breed" of cattle also won a worthy reputation; later to

600 FIB8T EBA OF TOBY BULB [oaoBOBlzi

be supplanted by the more famous "Durham," the short-homed breed of the Tees valley.

The improvements were very great, but there was also much loss and suffering. The old farmer had led an independent, eon- Lo88and8uf' ^®^^®d I^'^j ^^8 fields were small, but he could eke out lKc?wwm£c* ^^^ meagre earnings by setting up a small factory in chanoe. ^jg house. He was generally sure of his market. The government encouraged exportation of grain and when the price fell below 48 shillings a quarter, added a bounty of 5 shillings. But now the capitalist farmer came in; small farms disappeared and with them the common field farmer, who became a "hired The "Encio- ^^7 laborer. " Three thousand "Enclosure Acts" were OeoroeiJi% P^^sod in the reign of George III. By the middle of reign, the next century seven million acres had been taken

from the people and turned into private property. Like the fac- tory, the farm was conducted more scientifically, with better tools and with better results, biit the average agricultural laborer had no share in the fruits of this prosperity. The expense of living was increasing, but the awful pressure of subsistence compelled the laborer to compete with his fellow, until at last it became necessary for the state to add to his wages by way of a poor-law dole. At the opening of the next century it was estimated that one seventh of the population received relief under the poor-law. A strange phenomenon ! England was getting richer but pauper- ism was increasing at an appalling rate.

When the new king began his reign he undertook the praise- worthy task of breaking up the ring of old Whig families which had controlled the government since the days of

o'J^oeiL ^^^®- ^® ^^^^^^^^ himself a Whig of the Revolution. He had no sympathy with the principle of party gov- ernment; he believed that as king it was his duty to ignore parties altogether, to select the best men for his ministry, and, by con- trolling them himself, restore to the crown the power which the Whig leaders had so long usurped. To accomplish this end he was compelled to draw near to the Tories, who had been freed from the blight of Jacobitism, and now most nearly represented the ideas of the king himself. It took the slow mind of George,

'-^^A

1762, 1768J JOHN WILKES 501

however, some time to grasp the real conditions which confronted him; hut hj 1770 he had learned his lesson; and from 1770 to the end of his reign, in fact until 1830, the Tory rule was virtually unbroken.

Bute's administration was a short one. In 1763, within two months of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, he gave way to Ormvme- Cr^orge Greuville. Grenville was honest himself, but fwfnSrw ^® ^^ compelled to yoke with the duke of Bedford for msma, the sake of his following in the Commons, which he maintained by all the corrupt methods of Walpole and Newcastle.

Two serious blunders have rendered Grenville's administration

memorable, the Wilkes affair and the Stamp Act. In June

1762, John Wilkes, a worthless demagogue, likewise

and the member of the House of Commons, began an oppo-

Brwm, sition newspaper which he called Tlie North Briion.

No. 45,**

In the famous "No. 45," which appeared in April

1763, he attacked a recent royal address in which the king had

commended the Peace of Paris to his parliament. Wilkes, assum- ing that the speech was the work of the king's ministers, declared it to be "the most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed upon mankind." The king was deeply offended by what he regarded as a personal attack, and insisted that the Secretary of State, Lord Halifax, should issue a general warrant for all concerned in the issue of the offensive No. 45 of The North Briton, Some forty-nine persons, including the publishers, printers, and lastly Wilkes himself, were drawn into the official net. Wilkes, however, appealed to the conrts and upon pleading his privilege as a member of the House was released. The king, however, was not satisfied, and by his per- sonal influence persuaded parliament to en.ter the lists where the courts had failed him. Wilkes was condemned on the charge of libel and expelled from the House. The government then resumed the prosecution in the courts, and Wilkes, no longer protected by the privilege of a member of parliament, fled to the continent, allowing his case to go against him by default. In February

1764, he was formally outlawed by decree of the court. The government had carried its point, bnt they had made Wilkes a

602 FIB^T ERA OP TOBY BULB [ombmIH

popular hero, discredited themselyes with the people, and awak- ened a dangerous spirit of insubordination.

The second serious blunder of the Grenville-Bedford ministry was the passage of the famous ''Stamp Act." The recent wars

had raised the national debt to £130,000,000. The AcU" March^ ministry accepted the obligation of reducing this

burden, now that peace had been restored, but the method which Grenville proposed was unfortunately as annoying to a large part of the British Empire as the old ship-money of Charles I. He proposed (1) to establish in America a portion of the British regular army amounting to 10,000 men. To support this resident garrison he proposed (2) to tax the colonists by requiring ''all bills, bonds, policies of insurance, newspapers, broadsides, and legal documents to be written on stamped paper sold in public oflBces." He also proposed (3) to enforce strictly the laws against smuggling. No one was surprised more than Grenville himself at the reception of his proposals by the colonies. Parliament had long been accustomed to regulate colonial port duties. The loyalty of the Americans had been abundantly proved by their devotion to the common cause in the war which had just closed. The war, moreover, had been begun in order to defend the colonies against the aggressions of France; and no part of the empire had profited more by its successes. The Stamp Act, however, had raised a question which was by no means new in the colonies: What right had the distant British parliament, a body in which Americans were not represented, to levy an internal tax upon America without asking the consent of her people? Here was the crucial point. Other grievances were not wanting, bu; all sank into minor importance beside the greater grievance of "taxation without representation."

Before the full significance of Grenville's measures, however, became apparent in England, his ministry had come to an end. The immediate cause of his fall was an attempt to exclude the name of the king's mother from a "Regency Bill" which had been made necessary by the shadow of insanity which was already hanging over the king. The House refused to allow the omis- sion, and the king, to get rid of the minister whom he could not

1765, 1766] THE PITT-GRAFTON MINI8TBY 603

forgiye for the proposed slight to his mother, after yainly seeking Pitt's support, in July 1765 threw himself into the arms of the old Whig ring. The successor of Newcastle was the gencu BiW marquis of Rockingham, who was selected to head the Rockingham' new ministry, but although he did not favor the minutry. ^^^p^ methods of the old Whig regime, his conserva- tism denied him the support of the liberal wing of the party, and his ministry soon went to pieces. It survived long enough, how- ever, to undo some of the mischief caused by his predecessors, chief of which was the Stamp Act. But in repealing the mis- chievous measure an opening was left for future trouble in the accompanying ''Declaratory Act," in which the authority of par- liament over the colonies in legislation and taxation was formally asserted.

After a year, Eockingham was retired and a new ministry was formed under the nominal head of Pitt. Much was expected of this ministry. The king understood Pitt better than oraftonminr in 1760. He saw that Pitt was as hostile to party gov- ernment as himself; that he hated the old Whig oligarchy, and that he really wished to curtail the power of the Commons in the interests of a purer administration. Pitt, how- ever, stood upon ground where George III.'s narrow mind would not allow him to follow. For Pitt had fully grasped the corol- laries of the Eevolution, — the freedom of tho press and the right of Englishmen to the protection of English laws wherever they dwelt under the English flag. Hence Pitt fully recognized the significance of rising political consciousness in the American colonists, and boldly championed their claims to tho full privileges of Englishmen. Illness, however, prevented him from taking in the administration the active part which belonged to him. Pitt, moreover, selected for himself the unimportant position of Privy Seal, largely because the lighter duties of tho office were better fitted to the condition of his health ; but the position brought him into the peerage as earl of Chatham and thus deprived him of much of the popular esteem and confidence which had been his in the days when he gloried in the name of ''The Great Com- moner." While he was at home shut up in his room, subject to

504 FIRST £BA OP TORY RULE [osombIIL

alternate fits of intense nervous irritation and despondency, the wreck of his former self , his ministers were upsetting his most cherished schemes. He had denounced the Stamp Act, fought for the repeal, and bitterly opposed the Declaratory Act; and yet in 1767 his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, turned once more to Grenville's plan of taxing America, and pro- cured the passage of the '^ American Duties Bill,'' an act which imposed a series of customs and duties on certain articles imported into America, as white lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea. Like the Stamp Act, this act was designed not to regulate trade but to raise revenue. As with the Stamp Act, in order to justify the measure, it was proposed to apply the revenues to the expenses of the colonial government.

In the general election of 1768, Wilkes, who had recently returned from France, again came to the surface as a popular

agitator, demanding a reform of the entire parliamen- c^^u ^^^ representative system. There was certainly

ground enough for Wilkes's contention that the new and growing towns of the north and west should be represented. It was further estimated that in the whole population of 8,000,- 000, there were not 160,000 men who possessed the franchise. Many boroughs were virtually owned by individual families and were treated as a part of the family estates. The only way by which parliament could be freed from its thraldom to the crown, or from the corrupt practices of the borough owners, was to enlarge the franchise. It was unfortunate that so good a cause had so base a champion.

Wilkes was returned by the voters of Middlesex. On the first day of the session, April 27, 17G8, ho gave himself up to the Court

of King's Bench and, being refused bail, was sent to Fieu^^^^' prison while the question of outlaMrry was argued. A

deeply interested crowd of people gathered in St. George's Fields outside the prison walls. Lord Weymouth, the Secretary of State, apprehending an attack by the mob, sent word to the Scotch regiment in charge of the prison to fire on the crowds in order to disperse them. Five or six people were killed and a number wounded. Wilkes, who lay helpless within the

1768] ST. GEOBGE'S FIELDS 505

prison while his friends were shot down ontside, vented his wrath by sending to the St. James Chronicle a copy of Weymouth's directions to the troops with some scathing comments of his own, in which he referred to the results of Weymouth's work as *'the horrid massacre of St. George's Fields." The whole afiFair did not tend to increase the favor with which the government regarded Wilkes, and when on June 8, Chief Justice Mansfield reversed the sentence of outlawry as illegal, and released the prisoner, it was only that he might commit him again on the original charge of libel, and sentence him to twenty-two months' imprisonment and a fine of £1,000.

The king, in the meanwhile, supported by parliament, renewed his efforts against Wilkes with increased vindictiveness. The

Lords saw fit to construe the letter to St. James attack on Chronicle as a "seditious libel," and called upon the

Commons to unite with them in punishing the dema- gogue. The Commons responded by once more expelling Wilkes and adding to the old charges the new one of a libelous attack upon the Secretary of State, the enormity of which was increased, since at the time of the offense Wilkes was under sentence of the court. The electors of Middlesex replied by reelecting Wilkes. The next day, upon the ground that a condemned man could not be eligible, the Commons declared the election void. A third election was then held in which Wilkes received 1,143 votes, and his opponent. Colonel Luttrell, only 296 votes. The Commons awarded the seat to Luttrell.

Whatever may have been the justice of the original case against Wilkes, the Commons were now palpably in the wrong.

Vigorous champions, also, who saw that beyond Wilkes

Aoitatinnin ^, ^ ,, / ' .' . ,. . {.^ . ^

hehaif of the really great cause of the right of constituencies to •'jttiifwjs choose their own representatives was at stake, rose to sustain the demagogue. Among them were Burke and Orenville, but most, the mysterious satirist who masqueraded under the name of "Junius," who during all the year 1769 kept assailing the king and his ministers, painting in darkest colors the prevailing corruption and weakness of the government, and rous- ing his victims to fury by his merciless captigations. The people

506 FIBST EBA OP TOBY BULE [aaoimllL

were deeply moyed, and monster petitions were sent up to parlia- ment from different parts of the kingdom ; one from Yorkshire, presented hy Rockingham, was said to contain the names of 10,000 freeholders.

In the meanwhile, the Chatham ministry from which so much had been expected was rapidly going to pieces. In September 1767, Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, died and was succeeded by Lord North. Other members resigned, and their places were filled by new men. In October 1768, Chatham, the nominal head of the ministry, disgusted with the attitude of his ministers toward the stirring questions of the hour, also EndofChatr resigned, and committed himself to the cause of par- r^nmv^^^ liamentary reform. Grafton,^ his successor, managed ^^' to keep things going for two years longer, when he

too resigned, to give way to Lord North.

In Lord North the king found a minister after his own heart. Ho possessed, with much ability, a large experience in the affairs of

government, nor were the many disasters which are

associated with the twelv-e years of his administration, due to lack of judgment on the part of the minister, as much as to the persistent interference of the king, with which North in his easy-going good nature only too readily acquiesced. For he accepted without reserve the principle that as the king's appointee, he belonged to the king, and that he was bound to carry out the king's policy rather than his own or that of any party.

During the long era of the North ministry English politics were concentrated chiefly on the important constitutional issues

which had grown out of the Wilkes case and the sltua- re%rms ^^^^ ^^^ America. The policy of the party of reform

gradually shaped itself into a definite demand for the curtailment of the privileges of the Commons, and for more direct responsibility to their constituents. Grenville in 1770, just before his death, introduced a measure which transferred the deci- sion of disputed election cases to a special committee of thirteen, which examined witnesses under oath and swore to decide accord- ing to evidence* His plan remained in force until 1868 when tho

1770, 1773] THE NOBTH MIKI8TBY S07

parliament once more returned to the practice of the fourteenth century and relegated the settlement of disputed elections to the courts. Another measure, which swept away a vast amount of fraud, denied the right of servants of members of the House to share in the privilege of immunity from arrest. A ruling of Justice Mansfield in one of Wilkes's libel trials, in which he had allowed the jury to pass upon the fact of publication Libel Actr only, and had reserved to the judge the right to deter- mine the libelous character of the published matter, remained in force until the law of libel was amended by the ^^Foz Act" in 1792. In 1771 Wilkes took a prominent part in defeat- ing an attempt of the Commons to punish a London printer named Miller, who had recently begun to publish the reports of their debates. In their efforts to arrest Miller the Commons became embroiled with the authorities of London. The arrest of the mayor, Brass Crosby, was the signal for the outbreak of riots; mobs paraded the streets, and the Commons in alarm at the storm which their efforts to arrest a simple printer had raised, quietly receded from their position. Since then the right of the public to know what is doing in parliament has been tacitly conceded.

In 1773 the East India Company had fallen into dire straits. Bengal had been desolated by a famine that was followed by the usual pestilence. Half the population, it was said, tattnfl^V' Perished. Madras, also, was devastated by wars hardly S^ciiS^ less disastrous; the funds of the company were so reduced that they were forced to appeal to parliament for relief. A committee of inquiry was appointed which took up the subject of Indian administration, and upon the basis of their work North presented the famous "Regulating Act," which was to have such dire consequences in another part of the British Empire. By this act the company were allowed to export their bonded tea direct to America, free of the ordinary English duties, but subject to a slight duty at the American ports. He also granted the company the loan of £1,000,000, but took out of their hands a part of their political authority by establishing a supreme court, appointing through parliament a new council, and m»^"^o the governor of Bengal governor-general of India.

508 PIBST PERIOD OP TOBY RULE [oaoaallL

Hastings under this law became the first governor-general of India. In the discussions which attended the passage of the Begulating Act, Clive, who had been raised to the peerage, came in for a full share of censure on the basis of the alleged corruption which had attended his administration in the East, and although the formal act of censure was softened by a formal recognition of his **great and meritorious service" to England, the condemna- tion of the House so preyed upon his mind, that he broke under the strain and soon after took his life with his own hand, Novem- ber 22, 1774, dying at the age of forty-nine.

The position of the Catholics in England early demanded the attention of government. In 1778 Sir George Saville introduced

the "Belief Act" for the repeal of the act of 1700 Riots^7do!^ which had forbidden the celebration of the mass nnder

severe penalties and had debarred Catholics from acquiring a title to land, save by descent. Saville^s bill passed without serious opposition, but in the next session a proposal to apply a similar measure to Scotland at once aroused all the latent traditional hostility of the Scots to the Catholics, and npidlj developed a vigorous opposition, culminating in a series of riots, in which Catholics and the Protestants who favored toleration were the victims. The agitation spread to England, where it found a leader in the young and fanatical Lord George Gordon. On Friday, June 2, 1780 a crowd of 60,000 people gathered about the Parliament House with a petition for the repeal of the Belief Act, and when parliament showed no disposition to comply, with cries of "No Popery" turned to the looting and burning of pub- lic and private buildings. Jails were destroyed and criminals liberated. The city authorities were helpless, and for several days the city lay at the mercy of the mob. Wilkes, who was now an alderman of London and had a considerable following among the people, proved so useful in suppressing the disturbance that the Privy Council thanked him formally. The demonstrations failed altogether to force the repeal and in the end really strengthened the cause of toleration.

whicKV^^ the better elements within parliament and withont were ine to evil&^^^7 ^^ ^^^ corruption of North's administration, tlie

1770-1778] THE BOSTON MASBAOBE 609

sitnation in America was every day becoming more critical. The spirit of resistance, which had subsided for a season after the The **Bn8tfm ^P^ o' ^® Stamp Act, was blazing up again more jtfof^^tf^" fiercely than ever. The colonial governors were con- ^^' stantly quarreling with the colonial legislatures ; and

when parliament proposed to bring to England for trial men accused of treason, whom colonial juries refused to convict, the colonists answered by a sort of boycott of English merchants, such as they had attempted after the passage of the Stamp Act, agree- ing not to import or use English goods. The soldiers quartered in America were also a source of constant friction, and finally came into open confiict with a mob of men and boys in the streets of Boston.

Even Lord North hesitated to push matters further, and determining to try conciliation, repealed the duties of Towns- hend, except that on tea, and allowed the act by which emca&kL soldiers were quartered on the colonists to expire. The government pledged itself, also, to raise no further revenues in America. These measures for a time promised to improve ihe situation; but the underlying causes of discontent remained. Occasional outbreaks of lawlessness, the attitude of the resident representatives of the crown toward their fellow colo* nists, the treatment of Franklin, who was the accredited agent of several of the colonies at the English court, kept the public mind 27i« "Boiton irritated and fanned the growing spirit of opposition. S««jnS3^*" The American tea duty had been retained, partly to 16, ms. assert the right of the British government to tax the colonies, and partly because it was more of the nature of a trade regulation and did not affect English manufactures. The colo- nists, however, refused to use the tea. The removal of the English duty of one shilling per pound in the interest of the East India Company, still further complicated matters, by threatening every small merchant who had already bought his tea. When the tea ships arrived, for the most part, they were sent back with their holds unopened. Some, however, did not get off so easily; ip Boston a company of citizens, disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels and threw their entire cargoes into the sea.

610 FIRST PERIOD OF TOBY RULE [oaoMtm.

Parliament was naturally exasperated at the untoward results of its efforts at conciliation, and responded to the act of the citi- zens of Boston by a series of measures known in Amer-

The ^^IntoV'

erabUAcu," ica as the '^ Intolerable Acts." The harbor of Boston

T774'

was closed, a severe blow to the prosperity of the con- tumacious city ; the charter of Massachusetts was remodeled so as to place the powers of gOYemment largely in the hands of the crown and its appointees; the right of the people to hold public meetings was abridged. It was provided, also, that any one indicted for murder or any capital offense, committed while aiding a magistrate to suppress disturbances, might be sent for trial to any other colony or to Great Britain. General Oage was appointed military Governor of Massachusetts and empowered to quarter soldiers upon the inhabitants.

The attack upon Boston at once roused the sympathies of the other colonies. A system of committees organized resistance, and r?i4f Pint * "Solemn League and Covenant" was formed by which cmigrMs^^ the colonies bound themselves to have no commercial ^77* intercourse with Great Britain until the unjust acts

were withdrawn. A movement for a general Congress was set on foot, and on September 5, 1774, delegates met at Philadelphia, representing every colony except distant Georgia. They drew up a series of addresses to the colonies, to the Canadians, and to the king and people of England. They also framed a declaration of rights setting forth the points at issue in a clear and statesman- like manner. They had no wish to separate from the mother country ; they acknowledged the general legislative authority of parliament and its right to impose such commercial regulations as might be deemed for the best good of the empire. But rather than submit to taxation by parliament, or to acts which violated their liberties, they would appeal to the sword. They adjourned to meet in the following May to consider the king's reply to the address and determine upon the next step. But before the time for the second meeting came, the war had begun.

On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent out the unfortunate expedition to destroy the stores at Concord, that resulted in the skirmish on the green in the quiet village of Lex*

1775, 1776] AMEBIC AK DECLABATIOK OP IKDEPBKDEKOE 511

ington, and the more serious fighting that attended the retnm march from Concord. Eastern Massachusetts rose, and Qage soon found himself compelled to face a regular siege. and Bunker On the 17th of June, the insurgents attempted to fortify the peninsula which stretches around Boston harbor to the left. The result was the action known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.

These events greatly strengthened the war spirit in the colo- nies. The second Continental Congress had met as agreed in May. The Second "^^^7 ^^^ ^°^® together ostensibly as a peace conven- ConwJSJf** ^^^^ ' ^^^ found themselves compelled to assume the ^^ functions of a governing body and shoulder the respon-

sibility of conducting a war. Yet they bravely faced the issue. On June 15, 1775, they appointed George Washington, who had seen severe service in Braddock's ill-fated campaign, commander- in-chief of the colonial armies, and at once inaugurated a series of vigorous measures for making the military strength of the colo- nies felt by England. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the gateway to Canada, were surprised and captured. And though an invasion of Canada failed, it was more than counterbalanced by the success of Washington in compelling Qage^s successor, Howe, to evacuate Boston in March, 1776. On the night of July 4, 1776, amidst the most intense anxiety, the Continental Congress gave the memorable Declaration of Independence to the world.

The months which followed were marked by varying fortunes on either side, until the victory of the Americans at Saratoga Saraioact, offoctually turned the tide. Congress, through its ^^^jtT* agent, Silas Deane, had already secured material aid ramUs, from France in money, arms, and equipment ; but the

disaster to the English arms at Saratoga encouraged the French government to make a treaty of alliance with the colonies by which they were recognized as independent states, and England was forced to begin war with France. In 1779, Spain also declared war on Great Britain, and in 1780, the northern powers entered into an ^'armed neutrality" to resist England's assumption of the right of search. England thus saw herself not only baffled in her attempts to reduce the colonies, but seriously menaced by

612 FIRST PEBIOD OF TOBY BULB [oaoftosm.

the goDeral attitude of the European powers, from Russia to Spain.

The situation of England was now extremely critical. North- em Europe was hostile and war had actually begun with Holland.

The French navy, which had been enlarged and euUiMfor strengthened by Louis XVI., was proying itself more

than a match for England on the seas. Ireland, which was in a far worse condition politically and commercially than the colonies had ever been, was also on the verge of revolt. Five- sixths of the population were Catholic. Of the remaining one- sixth the Presbyterian settlers of Ulster formed one-half, but were as completely excluded from participation in the government as were the Catholics. Only members of the Established Church were allowed to share in the administration of government or of justice, and even this handful of the population were controlled by a few wealthy and corrupt landowners. The Irish parliament was the mouthpiece of the Privy Council in England; English

laws had long since destroyed Irish commerce and agri- Aauatum, ^^^^^^ 1^ the interest of English merchants and hmd-

lords. Yet the new movement which now shook Ireland was not inspired by the suffering and poverty of the mis- governed majority, but by the ruling class, who believed that the time had come to demand legislative independence. It was sus- tained, moreover, by the eloquence of Grattan and Flood in parliament and by an armed force of 80,000 volunteers whom the English government had called out to provide defense for Ireland under threat of a French invasion. It was no time to think of resistance, and Lord North, taught at last by his experience with the American colonies, yielded, and the burdensome restrictions under which Irish commerce had struggled for a hundred years, were removed. The succeeding ministry abandoned the English claim to legislative and judicial supremacy, and for eighteen years Ire- land enjoyed a kind of Home Eule. The government, however, was still conducted in the interests of the Protestant minority.

In 1781, when Cornwallis, who had been shut up in Yorktown by a combined American and French force, was at last compelled to surrender, the climax was reached in the American struggle.

1781-1788J END OF AMEBICAN WAB 618

Even the king recognized that the further support of the North ministry was useless and on March 20, 1782, the unhappy min- ister was allowed to retire. The same bitter alternative American compelled the king to accept a Whig ministry, though '^'*'"* it implied the overthrow of the system which he had

been so long striving to build up. Bockingham again became the head of the administration. He survived his second elevation, however, barely fifteen weeks, to be followed by Lord Nor^ Shelbume. The negotiations for peace received a

favorable impulse from a victory which Rodney won over de Grasse in the West Indies, and also from the failure of a combined French and Spanish attack on Gibraltar, the culmina- tion of a three years' siege. France and Spain were convinced that England might still prove a dangerous enemy, and in Jan- uary, 1783, agreed to preliminaries at Versailles. Similar articles had been accepted by Great Britain and the United States in the preceding November, and on September 3, 1783, for- p^qT mal treaties between Great Britain, the United States, France, and Spain, were signed at Paris and Versailles. Great Britain ceded to France Tobago in the West Indies, and the Senegal region in Africa; Spain retained Minorca and Florida; the independence of the United States was recognized and the boundaries of the new nation were established. Though England had regained her control of the sea, the loss of her American colo- nies was a heavy blow and seemed to many even of her own people to have deprived her of her position as a great world power.

CHAPTER VI

THE SECOND PERIOD OF TORY RULE AND THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION

OEOROE III., r783J8U

For twelve years George III. had now been king after his own ideal ; he had not only reigned, he had governed. The results, however, were by no means such as to commend a further trial of the experiment. Even North, who had so often sacrificed his

514 SECOND PEBIOD OF TOBY BULB [ommbBL

own judgment in supporting the Tory idea of king goyemment, openly declared that henceforth the appearance of power was all

that was left for a king of England. The goyemment rtdeofkiTM by departments, therefore, was tacitly abandoned,

and the cabinet system of Walpole accepted as a per- manent feature of the unwritten constitution.

The tenure of the new Whig ministry was destined to be short. Fox, Burke, and Ashburton, who had resigned when Lord Shel-

burne became Prime Minister, joined forces with the Nmthcoaii- North Tories, and in February succeeded in forcing

tUm 1783' ^^

Shelburne out of office. The people, however, refused to believe that two such bitter political foes as Fox and North had joined hands for any other purpose than to keep themselves in power and more securely control public patronage. The new coalition ministry, therefore, though for the time strong in the Commons, began its career under a cloud of popular disfavor. The king, moreover, was against it. He had always detested Fox, and would not forgive North for his recent desertion. He told the new ministers to the face that they need never expect his support, and upon the first opportunity ordered Fox and North to deliver up their portfolios.

The great Chatham had died in 1778 in the midst of the American War, his last speech a protest against *'the dismember- ment of this ancient and most noble monarchy." ihcSecm^^^ When his speech was ended he fell back in a fit, and was carried home to die a few days later. May IL His eldest son, who bore his title, was a man of second-rate powers, but the younger son, born in 1759, who bore the father's name, had inherited not only his high-souled integrity but much of his power as a leader, although without his fire. Prom childhood the younger Pitt had been trained by his august father for public life. Under such tutelage the susceptible mind matured fast, and the youth soon developed remarkable powers as a debater and leader. He was scarcely out of his teens when he first entered parliament, and soon became prominent as an earnest advocate of parliamentary reform. When Fox resigned from the Shelburne ministry in 1782, Pitt, although then but twenty-three, waf

1759-1790] WILLIAM PITT THE BEOOHTD 515

appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and now, a year later, upon the fall of the coalition, he was invited by the king to form a new ministry.

For some months Pitt's position was precarious. Again and again he was defeated by large majorities, yet he would not resign. The appeal '^^^ people saw in the opposition of the politicians onlj* %ecwi^ a determination to make the Commons independent try, 1784. not only of the king but also of the nation ; in Pitt they saw the champion of the interests of the nation against the politicians, or what in America would be called "the ring," or "the machine." When, therefore, in the spring of 1784 he appealed to the country, the electors rallied to his support in such numbers that the opposition lost one hundred and sixty members, and thus gave Pitt a free hand to undertake the great work of restoring the resources of the country, wasted by the recent war.

Among his first measures he took up the Indian question, and in 1784 proposed an India Bill, which, while it left the government and the patronage of the company still in its hands. of peace, placed over the company a responsible board of control, subject to removal by the crown. This arrangement continued in force until the abolition of the company in 1858 after the Sepoy Mutiny. In 1785, Pitt approached the dangerous ques- tion of parliamentary reform in the same judicious way. His plan, however, which proposed to buy up the rotten boroughs and the exclusive corporations in the interests of an extended fran- chise, met with little support from the radical reformers, while the king and Pitt's Tory supporters, who were suspicious of all reform measures by instinct, also opposed the bill, and it was lost. In 1785 he was again defeated in a measure which proposed to estab- lish free trade and commercial equality between Ireland and Eng- land. But in 1786 in securing a commercial treaty with France, which abolished most of the protective duties between the two countries, he was more successful. In both these measures, Pitt was directly influenced by the free trade views of Adam Smith, to which he had long since been a convert and which he now tried to put into practical operation. In 1791 he divided Canada into two provinces and gave the people representative institutions.

516 SEOOHTD PERIOD OF TOBY BULB [oaoBnm.

It was upon his own office, that of the treasury, that Pitt brought his splendid business abilities to bear with the most

marked results. A legion of sinecure offices connected refHrim^ with the customs was swept away; the collecting of

duties was simplified; smuggling, which robbed the government annually of upwards of two million pounds, was dis- couraged, partly by reducing certain duties and partly by trans- ferring others to the excise list; the franking priyilege, which had been grossly abused by members of parliament, was restricted; treasurers and paymasters who had been allowed to leave office with large accounts unsettled, were brought to book, and the entire system of administering the finances was reorganized and put on a sound basis.

The event, however, about which public interest specially cen- tered, was the impeachment of Warren Hastings upon the charge

of high crimes and misdemeanors connected with his renHaaWm' '^^^^^ administration. He had returned to England

in 1785 and was almost immediately attacked by his defeated rival, Philip Francis, the supposed author of the * 'Junius" letters, and by Burke and Sheridan. The trial began before the House of Lords in 1788, and dragged on for seven years, when Hastings, embittered in spirit and with diminished fortune, was finally acquitted.

The great moral awakening which had been stirring England since the beginning of the careers of Wesley and Whitefield, was

now beginning to make itself felt in two very practical pnwm directions, — prison reform and opposition to the slave

trade. The prisons of England in the eighteenth cen- tury were a reproach to civilization, to say nothing of Christian- ity. To avoid the window tax, originally imposed in 1696, prisons had been built with little or no light; they were, moreover, always overcrowded, filthy, and haunted by contagion. The **jail fever" executed more criminals, it was said, than the hangman. Jails were let upon a sort of contract system, and the jailers sought by means of petty persecutions, more or less brutal, to wring the largest possible fees from the victims whom justice placed at their mercy. The debtor and the hardened criminal, the innocent and

1796-1788] JOHK HOWARD AND PRISON REFORM 517

the guilty, male and female, old and young, were herded together without sufficient food, air, or water. Even those who were acquitted, or who were discharged by the grand jury, might be dragged back to prison and held until they could satisfy the mon- strous charges of the ogre whom the state had put in charge of the jail.

The public had not been altogether blind to these abuses; as early as 1726 parliament had been forced by certain disclosures

connected with the Fleet Prison to undertake an andPrUion inquiry. In 1773, John Howard, a quiet gentleman of

Bedfordshire, was appointed sheriff of the county. His duties brought him into contact with the miseries of the jail popu- lation. Inquiry and travel soon revealed to him that what was going on at Bedford was the common experience of jail life over all the British Islands, and he hencefoi*th devoted his fortune and his life to the noble purpose of confronting England and Europe with the wrongs which society daily heaped upon the innocent and helpless. In 1774 he was summoned before parliament to give testimony upon the condition of the English jails, and his dis- closures had much to do in inducing parliament to undertake the reforms which followed, chief of which was the abolition of jail- ers' fees and of the numerous abuses which had sprung of the cus- tom. Justices of the peace, also, were required to see that jails were kept in a sanitary condition and that proper infirmaries were provided for the sick. In 1788, as the result of an effort to secure a more healthful location for the English convict colony, Botany Bay on the southern coast of Australia was selected, and the first load of convict colonists sent out to begin the English possession of the continent of the southern seas. Captain Cook had explored this coast nearly twenty years before and upon the basis of this exploration the English founded a claim to the whole island, although it had been long known to Europeans.

It is not surprising that while the conscience of England was thus awakening to its obligations toward the helpless and the unfortunate, some mentors should arise to call attention to the horrors of the African slave trade. In 1772, Chief Justice Mans- field gave his famous decision that a slave brought to England

518 SECOHTD PERIOD OF TORY RULE [gbombiII.

became free. In 1787 the "Society for the Abolition of the SlaTe Trade" was formed, the leading spirits of which were Thomas

Clarkson and William Wilberforce. In 1788 the Soci- traiu^^^ ety got a promise of assistance from Pitt, and the

government made an effort to lessen the horrors of the passage from Africa to America by limiting the number of negroes which might be carried in a single cargo. The colony of Sierra Leone, also, was established in western Africa as a refuge for freed slaves. There was too much capital invested in the lucrative trade, however, to make the victory an easy one. One- half the wealth of Liverpool, it was said, came from this source. The king and the Tories opposed the reform on principle; and when the French Revolution attacked slavery the consenrative Englishman, who had wavered before, was satisfied; that "the atheists and anarchists of France^' had abolished slavery was reason sufficient for upholding the trade in England. Yet men like Clarkson and Wilberforce continued the struggle, and after repeated efforts, the trade was finally abolished by the act of 1807.

In Pitt's foreign policy there was nothing of the ''benevolent tolerance'' which marked his handling of these domestic questions.

The recent partition of Poland had apparently whetted wHcyVfVitt ^^^® appetite of the Russian Catherine II. for more

plunder of the same kind, and in 1783 she seized the Crimea, proposing to destroy Turkey and reestablish a Greek Empire, but under Russian control; in the north, also, she was threatening (Uistavus III. of Sweden. To overawe Russia and meet this new menace to the existing balance of the northern powers, in 1788 Pitt succeeded in effecting an alliance of Eng- land, Prussia, and the Dutch Netherlands. In the north the pro- test of the new Triple Alliance was successful; but in his efforts to mediate between Russia and Turkey, Pitt, who was the head of the Alliance, was not so successful, although he succeeded in detaching Austria from the support of Russia.

The Triple Alliance, however, was soon to be called upon to grapple with a series of problems very different from those sug- gested by the aggressions of Russia in the Baltic or the Euxine.

	w	w
m	^	^.
m	^ p	W'
4'	[^	^ix^-

1788-17d4] PITT AND THE FBENCH EEVOLUTION 619

Within a few months after the fonnation of the Alliance, the first notes of coming revolution were sounded through France. Yet Early am- ^P ^^ ^^^ ^^°^® ^' *'^^® attempted flight of the French BrUnii!^^^ king in June, 1791, the course of events in France elic- fZ'cV^ it^d approval rather than alarm in England. The lution. menace to the peace of Europe was still supposed to lie

in the east, and in the presence of the ambitious schemes of Catha- rine, England no more than Austria or Prussia had any wish to tie her hands by interfering in the domestic affairs of France.

The hysteria of revolution frenzy, however, which had seized upon France, soon compelled her neighbors to arm in self defense, and in 1793 the young Republic found herself at war not only with England, Holland, and Prussia, but also with Austria, Sar- dinia, and Spain. For this strange war of infatuation France was poorly prepared; her recruits were raw and without discipline, and fled in wild panic at the first attack of the allies. Yet her energy quickened with resistance, and before the year closed her armies had driven the allies from her northern frontier, Toulon had fallen, and the domestic revolts had been stamped out. Tho next year, 1794, saw Holland not only overrun and conquered, but organized upon the French model into the **Batavian Repub- lic," and her arms turned upon her late allies. Only at the seaboard was the victorious march of the young Republic checked; on the "Glorious First of June," 1794, Admiral Ilowe caught the French fleet off Ushant, and all but annihilated it. England easily took possession of the French East Indies, and when Hol- land was foroed to join France, England also seized the Cape of Grood Hope, Ceylon, Java, and the Spice Islands.

But the picking up of distant islands in the southern seas could not materially affect the great continental struggle. Aus- tria and Prussia, moreover, still cherished the old thejintc^HiU- enmities bom of the struggle of Frederick and Maria Theresa; both feared Russia, and when the Polish revolt of 1794 under Koscinszko led up to the third partition of that unhappy country in the following year, the two powers, although subsidized by England, withdrew their troops from the Rhine. Austria and Sardinia kept up the struggle in Italy; bat

520 SECOND PEBIOD OF TOBY BULB \QmamaTIL

it was evident that the coalition had broken down. In April 1795, Prussia made peace with France at Basle, and in July, Spain also made her terms. A belated royalist rising in La Vendue did nothing to tnm the scales; it was overwhelmed by Hoche at Quiberon on July 20, and the prisoners, including many of the emigres, were massacred in cold blood. Austria kept up the struggle for two years longer, only to be compelled to accept the humiliating terms of Campo-Formio, October 1797.

While Britain was thus shorn of her last ally upon the land, she still maintained her command of the seas. But the transfer Cfmtinued ^^ ^^^ support of Spain to the side of the Republic in ^BHmiat August 1796, had once more raised the naval power of sea, 17S7. France, already reinforced by the alliance of the Dutch, to a respectable footing, and enabled it to compare not unfavor- ably, in numbers at least, with the navy of Great Britain. It takes something more than ships and men, however, to win bat- tles at sea. On February 14, 1797, Sir John Jervis with fifteen ships defeated a combined fleet of twenty-seven French and Span- ish ships off Cape St. Vincent, and on October 11, Duncan defeated the Dutch off Camperdown. These successes were of the utmost importance, because if the French could once succeed in breaking through the wall of ocean, they were certain to make trouble in Ireland, if they did not attempt a direct invasion of England from France.

England was now feeling the severe depression that is always incident to any prolonged war. Taxation had increased and the EffeHnfihc ^^^^ ^^^^ ^Qtii swcllcd by ucw loaus. In 1793 more £uIl//mT ^^^^ ^^® hundred English banks had failed, and in aiui Ireland. 1797 the Bank of England had been forced to suspend specie payment. The navy, upon which so much depended, was growing mutinous and discontented. The service was badly managed; the men were suffering from scanty and unwholesome rations; their pay was poor, and the very year of St. Vincent and Camperdown, formidable mutinies broke out at Spithead and the Nore. Ireland, also, was a constant source of anxiety. The reforms which had followed the American War had proved a dis- appointment, and instead of giving to Ireland a satisfactory gov*

1708-1796] EFFECT OF THE FRENCH WAR 521

eminent had only riveted more closely the hold of the corrupt local oligarchy. The Catholic peasantry, whose wrongs were hardly less than those of the French peasantry, formed secret organizations, like the **Peep of Day Boys," and terrorized the rilling minority by their secret outrages. The Anglican Protes- tants in turn, under the encouragement of the government, organized societies of **Orangemen" and repaid outrage with out- rage. Attempts at reform, connected with the names of Grattan and Pitz-William, wore made, but to no purpose. In 1796 tho ''Society of United Irishmen," in which Presbyterians of Ulster made common cause with the Catholics of the middle and upper classes, in despair of securing redress from England, sent Wolfo Tone to Franco to appeal for aid. The Directory, which at that time conducted the affairs of France, welcomed the appeal, and in December dispatched 20,000 men under Iloche to assist an Irish revolt. A storm dispersed the vessels and Hoche was obliged to return. The leaders in Ireland were seized ; an insurgent camp at Vinegar Hill was carried by assault, and the danger was over^ The Directory, in the meanwhile, made a second attempt, but although the French force landed, the crisis was passed, and after a few successes the French surrendered to Cornwallis, the Lord Lieutenant. The increasing pressure at home and the constant threat of trouble in Ireland, were not without their influence upon Pitt, and although public opinion still ran strong against any thought of peace, he determined to seek some opening for an understanding with France. All efforts, however, failed, chiefly because Pitt would not consent to allow France to retain her acquisitions in the Netherlands.

The two implacable foes then once more addressed themselves to the struggle. Bonaparte, whose recent success in Italy had

forced Austria to terms, and now exerted an all power- UhlSgypt ^^^ influence in France, persuaded the Directory to

enter upon a scheme which even to-day looks more like the wild vagary of a dreamer than the sober plan of a man of affairs. lie proposed to attack England in India, by first secur- ing a base in Egypt and Syria. Yet visionary as the scheme appears, it might have succeeded, had it not been for the active

522 SECOND PERIOD OF TOBY RULE [okmmbIIL

yigilance of Nelson, who on August 1, 1798, annihilated the French fleet in Aboukir Bay and thus severed Bonaparte^s com- munications with France. Victorious as was the little army of invasion, without reinforcements and without connection with France, final success was impossible.

Pitt, ill the meanwhile, had fallen back upon his old tactics

and sought to reach France by forming another coalition, in which

England, Russia, and Austria were the chief members.

Coalition, Catharine II. had died in 1796, and her successor,

T798 TJ99'

Paul I. , had abandoned her policy of aggrandizement in the east, to join the western powers against France. Turkey, roused by the attack of the French upon Egypt and Syria, had also joined the league. Prussia, however, refused to abandon her neutrality. The attack was begun upon the whole line of the recent conquests of France. In Italy andVestem Germany, the Austrian and Russian armies were everywhere successful. Only in Holland and in Switzerland, which had been organized in 1798 as the "Helvetic Republic," the French managed to hold their own.

At this point Bonaparte returned from Egypt. The Directory was thoroughly discredited; its corruption was a matter of com- Cmw d'etat of ^^^^ belief; its incompetence had been fully estab- N^^nilKT^^* lished. Bonaparte grasped the situation at once. He 9, 1790. f rgt unseated the Directory and secured for himself as

*'First Consul," the authority of a virtual dictator; he then turned upon the enemies of France. He succeeded in detaching from the alliance the Czar Paul, whose enthusiastic admiration for **the man of the people," rendered him an easy victim to the blandishments of the First Consul. Bonaparte then crossed the Great St. Bernard and in June 1800 fell upon the Austrians at Marengo, while Moreau won an even more overwhelming victory over a second Austrian army at Hohenlinden. The strength of Austria was broken, and at Luneville, February 1801, the emperor was glad to accept peace on the terms offered by the First Consul.

Thus a s3cond coalition had dashed itself to pieces upon the young Republic, and England was left again single-handed to face her enemy. Her position was worse than it had been in 1797. To the other burdens incident to the war, was to be added the dia-

1797-1801] IRELAND AND THE UNION 623

heartening inflnence of a depreciating paper currency. The land tax had risen to 48 in the poand, and in 1709 an income tax had been added, which taxed all incomes above £00 a ^WiSd. y^ar- Abroad, also, a reckless disregard of the rights of neutrals had led the Baltic powers, Sweden, Den- mark, and Prussia, under the leadership of Czar Paul, to revive the armed neutrality of the period of the American War. This action was ominous; Bonaparte was known to be intriguing with the sea powers against England, and Pitt saw himself in turn threatened with a dangerous coalition.

Ireland was still a subject of deep anxiety to English states- men. The failure of the attempt to govern Ireland by an inde- irej€md the V^^^^^^ Irish parliament had only emphasized the need *^tof2f" ^^ some more satisfactory plan of conciliating the hos- ^*^- tile elements in order to save Ireland if possible. Pitt

accordingly brought forward a plan of legislative union, which resembled the union that already existed between England and Scotland. It was accepted by the Irish parliament in February 1800, by the British parliament in July, and went into force on the 1st of January 1801, creating "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." The Irish were to be represented in the common parliament by four spiritual lords, twenty-eight temporal peers, chosen by the Irish peerage for life, and one hun- dred members for the Commons, chosen sixty-four for the coun- ties, thirty-five for the boroughs, and one for the University of Dublin. The Anglican Church of Ireland was to be united to the State Church of England. Taxation was to be distributed pro- portionately; the national debts of the two countries wore to be kept separate ; and no restrictions were to be laid on commerce between the two countries.

It was a part of Pitt's general plan of conciliation to follow the union by emancipating the Irish Catholics. But Oeorge was per- Theregigno' 8^*^®^ to believe that the concessions proposed by Pitt

FVbil^ ^^^^^ '^^^® ^'"^ ^ ^^°^^^® ^'^ coronation oath, and '^^- Pitt saw himself checked with his plan of union only half

realized. He knew the king; he knew that it was useless either

to argue or plead, and like the man of spirit that he was, resigned*

524 8EC0KD PERIOD OF TOBT BULK [(

The successor of Pitt, Henry Addington, his old time friend,

not being specially committed to the French war, was free to take

steps towards secaring the much needed peace. Becent

Amicm, cveiits had already paved the way by impressinfi: upon

Jklarcht 1902. -. 1 .1. V i M r

Bonaparte the hopelessness of carrying on a war in which he could not strike his antagonist. In 1800 the English had got possession of Malta; in March of the next year Aber- crombie had defeated the French at Alexandria, and by niidsain- mer the French had surrendered their last stronghold in Egypt. England, moreover, had taken the armed neatrality of the north- ern powers as a threat of war and had promptly sent Admiral Parker, with Nelson as second in command, to seize the Danish fleet in the harbor of Copenhagen. In March, Napoleon ^s friend, GzarTaul, was assassinated; this, with the loss of the Danish fleet, put an end to Napoleon's dream of a northern coalition against England. In June the British government recognized the justice of the claims of the northern states by conceding the dis- puted points, chief of which was her claim of the right to seize neutral ships if bound for an enemy's port that was under a nomi- nal blockade. With these concessions the armed neutrality dis- solved. England was thus once more lord of the seas, but she could not strike Franco without continental allies, and Napoleon could not strike England without the support of the naval powers. Both sides, moreover, needed a breathing spell. In March, 1802, the much needed truce was concluded at Amiens. The recent acquisitions of France and the extension of her power in Europe wore conceded. England restored to France and her allies, Spain and Holland, all her conquests except Trinidad and Ceylon. She promised, also, to restore Malta to the Knights of St. John. The king of England renounced the title of King of France, which he had held since the time of Edward III., and the Bourbon lilies henceforth disappeared from the royal arms of England. Eng- land, also, recognized the French Republic. France, in turn, renounced all claims founded upon her unsuccessful Egyptian expedition.

In England, though many criticized the peace on the gronnd of its one-sided concessions, all parties hoped that it might be

1802-1804] BSNSWAL OF THE WAR 525

sincere and lasting To Bonaparte, however, it was merely a truce to give time to prepare for his next move and his con- tinued insolence soon satisfied even Addington that uSHTmsf ^^® renewal of the war was inevitable, and accordingly he refused to surrender Malta. Bonaparte naturally made much of the breach of the recent peace, and in May 1803 again declared war.

Bonaparte, for France was now Bonaparte, was apparently stronger than ever. In August 1802, he had been made Consul for life, and on May 18, 1804, he was proclaimed Napoleon I., Hereditary Emperor of the French. Toward the end of 1804 he persuaded Spain again to join France against England. He had already made extensive plans for a direct invasion of England and had managed to stir up revolts in Ireland and India. The rising in Ireland, however, spent itself in a city riot in Dublin, and the leader, Robert Emmet, was hanged. France was equally power- less to help the native princes in India, where Bichard Wellesley, Lord Mornington, the English Governor-General, put down each rising with a vigorous hand. He was aided by a noble corps of officers, among whom was the governor's famous brother, Arthur. By the end of 1804, all India outside of the Indus valley and Bajputana, had passed under the English yoke. But the serious threat to England came not from Ireland, much less from India, but from Boulogne, where Napoleon was massing a splendid army of one hundred and fifty thousand men with evident intent of a direct descent upon the English coast. Gould he but control the Channel for a few hours, and bring his matchless military strength to bear directly upon England, he might dictate what terms he pleased to his rival. The English were fully awake to their danger. An army of three hundred thousand volunteers was mustered into service, and held at convenient posts where they could be readily massed upon a threatened point. In May, Pitt was again called upon to assume the duties of Prime Minister. Through the spring Napoleon pushed forward his preparations, only to postpone the final attempt to the next season.

When the year 1805 opened, Napoleon seemed at last ready for action. His plan was well laid ; the scattered ships, shut up in

626 SECOND PEBIOD OF TOBY RULE [oBo»nm.

the yarioaB harbors of France, were to break the blockade and with the Spanish fleet rendezToas at some port in the West Indies in hope that Nelson would follow them. Tbey would then make a dash for the English Channel, and with their combined strength might possibly hold it long enough to enable Napoleon^s trans- ports to empty their troops into the island. The first part of the plan was saccessfuUy carried out. Nelson not only gave chase, but the French Admiral Villeneuve managed to elude him and get back to the Spanish coast again early in July. Nelson, how-

eyer, had divined the real nature of the manoeuver octoher * and sent timely warning to the goTemment, so that Sir

Robert Calder with fifteen ships was able to meet the allies off Cape Finisterre. Calder was unable to preyent the return of the French fleet, but Villeneuve thought best to retire to Cadiz where he remained inactive for two months; and when he left Cadiz in October, it was only to fall in with Nelson "in Tra- falgar Bay" and lose his entire fleet. The victory of Trafalgar was decisive; its results permanent; but it cost the life of Eng- land's brave admiral. Ilis historic battle message, "England expects every man to do his duty," was characteristic of his sturdy patriotism.

The English, in the meanwhile, were busily plying negotiations preliminary to the formation of a new coalition. The reckless

disregard which Napoleon had displayed for the feel- ctHiiuion, ings of the powers made the task easy. Prussia, and Press- though, deeply vexed by the establishment of a French

force at the mouth of the Elbe, remained neutral ; but Alexander of Russia was ready to accede to the proposal of Eng- land, and in 1805 entered into the Anglo-Russian Treaty, which proposed to form a European league capable of placing five hun- dred thousand men in the field. Austria desired peace, but when she saw that war was inevitable, joined the allies, and sent Gen- eral Mack to occupy Bavaria, whose elector was friendly to Napo- leon. But Napoleon was already moving swiftly forward to support his ally, and before October closed had surrounded Mack at Ulm and forced him to surrender with twenty-five thousand men. He then pressed on to Vienna, driving the Austrians

1805-1807] AUSTERLITZ AND PRE88BUBG 527

northward to a junction with their Russian allies; and on Decem- ber 2, defeated the combined armies at Austerlitz in the historic ** Battle of the Three Emperors." The Russians retired; and Francis to saye himself, on December 26, signed the Peace of Pressburg, by which he ceded his Italian possessions to the French, and the Tyrol to Bayaria.

The years which immediately followed Pressburg constitute a fcritical period in European history. Before the end of 1805 Napoiefm Napolcon had placed his brother, Joseph, upon the Sim^ ^ ancient throne of Naples, and in the summer following 1805-1812, had organized the German States into the "Confedera- tion of the Rhine" under a French protectorate, for which he had prepared the way two years earlier by abolishing the host of petty independent feudatories that had heretofore made union impos- sible. The same year, 1806, witnessed the formal abandonment by the emperor of the now meaningless titles of the Holy Roman Empire. The Prussian king had been won to the French cause by the cession of HanoTer, but the insolent tyranny of his ally bad driven him to declare war, only to be crushed at Jena and Auer- stadt. Russia came to the support of Prussia, but the murderous though indecisive battle of Eylau, followed by the French victory at Friedland, brought Alexander and Frederick William to con- sent to the Peace of Tilsit, July 1807, by which Prussia was spoiled of half her territory. In a secret treaty Alexander also agreed to ally with France against England should she refuse to accept terms dictated by himself; as a reward, he was to be allowed to extend Russian influence in Sweden and the Ottoman Empire. Thus Napoleon at last had all western, central, and southern Europe at his feet. Russia was in secret alliance. Britain was still formidable, but she had been shorn of her allies and must herself yield in time under the awful burdens which the war had imposed on her people.

Pitt had died, January 23, 1806, worn out by the cares of his position. Party strife for the moment had been hushed and Whigs and Tories had united in the "Ministry of All the Talents.'* Grenville became Prime Minister and Fox and Addington, now Lord Sidmouth, Secretaries of State. Fox had opposed the war

538 SECOND PERIOD OF TOBY BULB [oaoMsm.

on principle, and saw no reason why the two conntries conld not come to some fair and rational understanding. But Napoleon had soon disabused his mind of its peace theories and before his death in September he had seen what Pitt had seen, that nothing would satisfy Napoleon but the destruction of the British Empire. The outlook, therefore, was gloomy enough for England. She had proTed herself invincible in eyery direct attack upon the seas; r/ie"Con«- but with the new Russian alliance Napoleon virtually um^^me controlled the entire seaboard of Europe, and at last it 1807. wag possible to reach a vulnerable point in his enemy's

harness. In November 1806, he took the first step by publishing a series of decrees from Berlin which declared the British Isles in a state of blockade, forbade all commerce between Great Britain or her colonies and the territories occupied by France or her allies, and ordered the confiscation of all British merchandise wherever found. In January 1807, England retaliated with her "First Orders in Council," declaring the ports of France and her alliea in a state of blockade and neutral vessels trading between them lawful prize.

The struggle had now passed from a war of navies and armies to a duel by starvation, to see which people could endure hunger

the longer. In this grim conflict, however, the advan- Cfmtinentdi tages stiU rcitcd with the English. They still had

their colonial trade, which, while nothing compared with what it is to-day and much diminished by the recent Ameri- can War from what it had been in the eighteenth century, was still of considerable importance. The prohibition of trade, more- over, so raised the price of English goods, that the rewards of smuggling were increased enormously and it was impossible for Napoleon to draw the meshes so tight that the smuggler could not get through, or that the English manufacturer could not find an outlet for his goods. The English people, also, were deeply inter- ested in the war, and were far more willing to suffer in what they regarded as the cause of religion and humanity against the French military tyrant, than the people of the continent, who had taken little interest in the struggle apart from their governments and now began to execrate the name of Napoleon for the losses and suffer-

1805-1812] FALL OF THE GREKTILLE MINISTRY 529

ings occasioned by the commercial rnin of Europe. In one respect Napoleon succeeded; the English carrying trade was ruined for the time, and neutral commerce left English ships. The Americans, whose position had thus far exempted them from taking any part in the struggle, were the chief gainers.

Not long after the Orders in Council the Grenyille ministry came to an end. The ministers had proposed to abolish the military dis- qualifications of Catholics; but the king compelled Grenviiie them to withdraw the measure, and when they refused to pledge themselves not to reopen the. question of dis- ability, he dismissed both ministry and parliament, and appealed to the country. The result was to entrench the Tories more strongly than ever in control of the government.

The new administration was headed by the inefficient duke of Portland, but included Canning and Castlereagh as Secretaries,

Portland ^^^^^^^ ^^ "^^^^ ^*« lacking in the fire and energy miniBtry and that were needed in the government if England were to

the viaUUifm

(^ths rights Buccced. Bussia was now Napoleon's avowed ally; Sweden was forced to renounce her neutrality, and Denmark, also, apparently was to be dragged into the coalition against England. Canning acted promptly. He sent a fleet to Copenhagen to demand the surrender of the Danish fleet under pledge of returning it at the end of the war. When the demand was refused, the bombardment of Copenhagen followed; the Danish fleet was takdn and with it large supplies of naval stores. Canning followed this bold move of September by a still more daring step in November when he issued a second series of Orders in Council, closing to the ships of all nations every port in Europe from which English ships were excluded, and rendering all ves- sels bound thither liable to seizure, unless they had first touched at a British port. In December, Napoleon replied, in the ^' Milan Decree," which made neutral vessels liable to seizure if they touched at a British port, or submitted to be searched by British cruisers. These orders, which not only threatened the economic ruin of every state in western Europe, but brought the infant American Republic at last within the sphere of the war, completed the ^^Continental System." Britain in her desperate effort to

530 8BC0ND PERIOD OF TORY RULE [ommbQI

retaliate upon her powerful antagonist, had fully matched his tyranny in disregarding the rights of neutral powers.

Napoleon's plot to secure nayal assistance in the north haying been frustrated by the prompt action of Canning, his next moTe was to force Portugal to turn upon her long time ^^j^^JJ^{2^ friends and join the Continental System. Portugal refused and war followed. The royal family fled to Brazil and the little state passed under French control. Then Napoleon turned upon his allies, the witless Bourbons, deposed Charles IV., and made his own brother, Joseph, king. The Span- ish people, however, rose to avenge the wrongs of their national sovereign and Napoleon soon had a serious war on his hands. The English ministry had promptly despatched an army to the coast in order to cooperate with the Spanish insurgents and finally compelled Napoleon to put himself at the head of an army of two hundred thousand men to save his brother's throne. Sir John Moore made a skillful retreat of two hundred and fifty miles to the coast and at last got his little army safely out of the coun- try, though at the cost of his own life.

Napoleon had left Soult to pursue Moore while he turned to meet a new attack of Austria. The Austrians expected that Eng- land would divert Napoleon by attacking Antwerp, but dfn^frwn ^^^^^0 the English expedition was even under way, Sy^^^nT^ Napoleon struck the Austrians at Wagram ; in October, 1809, he compelled them to accept the humiliating Treaty of Vienna. Directly, Austria had gained nothing by her new show of spirit; yet her example had stimulated the rising patriotism of the Germans, while the very treaty which marks the depths of Austria's humiliation, was the means ultimately of alienating Russia and throwing her influence against Napoleon. In December, 1810, Alexander withdrew from Napoleon's com- mercial system, which had proved ruinous to Russian trade, opened his harbors to neutral vessels, and imposed duties on many French products. Neither Russia nor France was in haste for war, but both countries saw that war was unavoidable and continued making vast preparations during the year 1811.

Sir Arthur Wellesley, in the meanwhile, had been sent back

1809-1811J THE LIVERPOOL ADHIKI8TRATI0N 631

to renew the struggle in Portugal and Spain. Napoleon sent his best marshals against him and for two years the English and French wrestled back and forth oyer the desolate Peninsula. While Wellesley, who had been made Viscount Wellington after AWairsin Talavera, was thus sustaining the honor of Britain in England, the Peninsula, the cabinet became the scene of dis- graceful quarreling between Canning and Castlereagh, which in 1809 ended in a duel and the resignation of both ministers. In 1810, George III. celebrated his ** Jubilee." Immediately after he succumbed to the malady which had haunted him since 1788, and which now yirtually became permanent for the rest of his life. In February, 1811, parliament conferred on the Prince of Wales the regency with powers restricted as in 1788, but the next year in the prolonged illness of the king, the restrictions were remoTed. It was hoped in some quarters that the Whigs might return to power now that George III.'s reign had virtually ended, but the Whigs were pledged to Catholic Emancipation, and for this the country was not yet ready. The Tory ministry, therefore, was reorganized under Robert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool ; Castlereagh was placed in charge of the Foreign Office, and Sidmouth, of the Home Office.

One of Castlereagh's first acts was to procure the repeal of Canning's Orders in Council, which had added the United States The seemd ^^ ^^® enemies of England. The close of the Ameri- ul^itcd^^^ can Revolution had by no means ended the bitter feel- staUB. ing which existed between England and America. The

mother country had grudgingly recognized the new Republic in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1794. The continental struggle, moreover, had raised many new points of dispute, and the old bitterness revived. The orders and decrees of Great Britain and France were met by Jefferson's embargo policy, which accomplished little save the ruin of American merchants. Under Madison's administration a more vigorous policy was urged by Calhoun, Clay, and Crawford, the young and enthusiastic leaders of a war party. The act known as "Macon's Bill No. 2" pro- vided that if either Great Britain or France should revoke its orders or decrees the United States would prohibit trade with the

632 SECOND PERIOD OF TORY RULE [qbomiIU.

other. Napoleon was quick to see his opportunity and by an apparent fulfillment of the conditions of the act, induced the United States to reviye the nonimportation act against Great Britain. It was this new danger, the possibility of a junction between Napoleon and the United States that hastened Castle- reagh's action. But it was already too late. On the 18th of June, five days after the repeal of the Orders in Council, the United States declared war against Great Britain. In the cam- paigns of the two years which followed, there was little to be prond of, either in the American invasions of Canada or in the British raid on Washington. But on the Great Lakes and at sea the young American navy won some brilliant victories over her mature rival, while at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Jackson retrieved the faults of incapable military leaders by defeating the veterans of the Peninsular War. Peace, which had already been made at Ghent, December 24, 1814, settled none of the questions which had occasioned the war, but in the changed conditions which fol- lowed Waterloo, they faded rapidly into insignificance.

While America was thus fighting Napoleon's battles in the

western hemisphere, he had already entered upon the fatal contest

with Russia. In the late spring of 1812 he massed four

Campaign, hundred and fifty thousand men on the Russian fron-

1812»

tier, and in Jiine crossed the Niemen. Austria and Prussia had sent their contingents, and the neighboring countries were swept bare in order to furnish supplies. Alexander fully understood the defensive strength of Russia, and quietly retired as the French advanced, knowing that every day's march into his territories must increase the difficulties of feeding the vast host which followed Napoleon. In early September, Alexander yielded to the clamors of the Russians sufficiently to risk a battle at Borodino, in which he lost thirty thousand men; yet although the French losses were still greater, he failed to arrest the tide of invasion and continued his withdrawal towards Moscow. On the 14th of September, Napoleon entered the Holy City, only to find it silent and deserted. Five days later it was swept by fire, prob- ably the work of the Russians. Napoleon could advance no farther; the Czar showed no intention of proposing peace, and on

1812,1818] MOSCOW 533

October 19, the French began the fatal retreat. On Noyember 6, the Russian winter set in with intense cold, blinding storms, and heavy snows. When Napoleon reached the Niemen on December 13, only a sad and shattered remnant of the magnificent army that had crossed in June remained. Napoleon, the invincible, had been beaten at last, not by the Russians, but by Russia.

At the border. Napoleon was met by reinforcements and turned again to strike his foes, but the spell of Napoleon's name had been

broken and everywhere the friends of liberty took fresh coaiuum, heart. In February, the Treaty of Ealisch, which

placed Prussia by the side of Russia and Sweden, inaug- urated a fourth coalition. In June, Britain and Austria joined, and before the end of the year most of the German states had risen to take their share in the glorious ^'War of Liberation." In August, in a series of battles fought around Dresden, Napoleon won his last victory on German soil. Tet, though he managed to hold his foes at bay for a little longer, he failed utterly to break the iron ring which was closing about him. At Leipsic, in a three day's battle, October 16-18, he was fairly overwhelmed by the numbers which his enemies poured upon him, and compelled to resume his retreat toward the Rhine. At Frankfort he refused an o£fer of peace, and early in January, 1814, the allies crossed the Rhine. At the same time Wellington was slowly fighting his way through the Pyrennes, and early in the year entered France from the south. In March the allies approached Paris; a few days later Napoleon abdicated and retired to the island of Elba, while the Bourbons were once more restored to the French throne. Napoleon was now beaten. The great shadow which had so long hung over Europe was dispelled. It remained for the allies to

meet and undo his work. Accordingly in September, The Fifth a cougress of the powers met at Vienna. But the com- ^uhfsl'^The missioners had hardly begun their work, when Europe cf^WcUerioo. was startled from its dream of peace by the news that

Napoleon had landed in France, that the Second Bour- bon Monarchy had been swept away, and that Napoleon was again Emperor of the French. The ambassadors of the four great powers at Vienna — Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia — at

A31

SECOND PEBIOD OP TOBY KCLB

I"

once abandoned their diplomatic quarreling to form a fifth coali- tion in order to destroy the common enemy before he ooald gather the strength of France. Napoleon's Teterana rsUibd to his sup- port and in a fev veeks he had gathered a powerful army and was marching toward the Belgian border. He hoped by the rapidity of his morements to crash his many foes in detail before they coold concentrate their strength. On Jane 16, he beat the Pms- sian Blucber at Ligny before he had time to unite with the mixed Anglo-Belgian army with which Wellington held the road to Brns-

sels. On the 18th, Napoleon advanced to meet Wellington who had taken np a strong position on the slope of Mont St. Jean near Waterloo. For seven hours the "Iron Duke" doggedly held bis position, while Napoleon hurled his cavalry and infantry apon the British squares. After the battle of the 16th, Napoleon had sent Grouchy after Blucher to keep the Prussians from reforming, but Grouchy had failed to ezecnte his mission, and towards even- ing of the 18tb, Wellington from his beset position on Mont St.

1815] WATERLOO AND ST. HELEKA 535

Jean saw the long dark line of the Prassians breaking from the woods on his left. With a shout the English squares, which had stood on the defensive during that long terrible day, advanced upon their foes. Napoleon's weary troops could not withstand the fresh masses that were now hurled upon them. In a few moments his last army was a wild mob of panic-smitten fugitives, choking the roads and thronging the ravines which led from the battlefield. Napoleon fled to Paris, abdicated a second time, and then surrendered himself to the commander of the British warship Bellerophon. He was finally sent to the lonely rock off the coast of Africa, where he died in 1821. Louis XVIII. was again brought back, and France, beside paying a war indemnity of £28,000,000, was compelled to support an army of occupation for five years. Her territories were reduced to the old lines which had prevailed before the beginning of the war of 1792. Great Britain restored Java to the Dutch but retained Ileligoland, Tobago, St. Lucia, Ceylon, and Cape Colony, the beginning of her power in South Africa. Her hold in the Mediterranean was secured by the retention of Malta and by the inauguration of a protectorate over the Ionian Islands.

Thus ended at last the Second Hundred Years' War between England and France. Napoleon had been compelled to take up the old struggle with the rising power of Great Britain oftheNapo- which Louis XIV. had begun in 1689, and had failed U) the Strug- for the Same rcason that Louis had failed. Pitt had eighttenth been forced to resume the work of William and Marl- '^ ^*^' borough and had succeeded as they had succeeded, and for the same reason. The national policy of France had always been one of concentration and suppression. She had developed a vast centralized state, all powerful on the land, and in the eight- eenth century, apparently without a peer in Europe. But her people had not developed their resources correspondingly; they had not learned to help themselves. Their poverty presented a pitiful contrast with the luxury, the pomp, the magnificence, of the court of their Bourbon kings. England, on the other hand, had followed a very different policy. She was shut off from expansion at home, but the sea lay open to her. She had built up

538 THE FIBST ERA OF REFORM [obobobIIL

had promptly passed a **Coni Law,*' by which the importation of

foreign-grown grain was prohibited whenever the price of British

wheat should fall below eighty shillings a quarter.

xS«;"^^25. ^^®^ ^^® price of British-grown wheat should fall below sizty-seyen shillings a quarter, the importation of colonial wheat also was prohibited. This of course was class legislation of a most reprehensible kind; instead of forestalling the approaching distress, parliament had merely shifted the bur- den of the ^*hard times" from the shoulders of those who were most able to bear it, the landlords, to the shoulders of those who were least able, — the day laborers and the factory hands.

A general failure of the crops in 1816 added greatly to the accumulating distress of the people. At eighty shillings, foreign- grown grain was admitted, but the price of wheat con- ^^*gj^ tinned to rise until in 1817 it reached the almost prohibitive figure of ninety-six shillings a quarter. Mobs of wretched farm hands burned the hoarded grain of the farmer; other mobs of factory workers turned upon the better favored establishments, smashing the newly-devised labor-saving machines which were regarded as responsible for the troubles of the laborer, and burning the plants. Monster meetings, also, were held at various places; fieiy agitators incited the people against the government and the proprietary classes, and wild schemes were proposed of marching upon London and compel- ling parliament to redress the wrongs of the people.

The old conservative ministry, which since 1812 had been

directed by Robert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool, was still in power.

The ministers at first naturally thought only of repres-

T^he reforms </ o *f r

ofTitricH sion. Meetings of ''radicals" were branded as **sedi- tious"; magistrates were instructed to arrest all persons accused of libelous publications, and in March, 1817, the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. Yet the party in power could not close their ears altogether to the cry of the people; the ministers soon saw that something more than simple repression was needed, and in a characteristic Tory fashion set to work. In 1817 they secured the removal of the disability which forbade Catholics and nonconforming Protestants to hold commissions in

1818, 1819] PETEBLOO SS9

the army; in 1818 they appropriated £1,000,000 to the building of new churches; in 1819 they secured a bill which provided for the resumption of specie payment in 1822. The Whigs with somewhat clearer insight into the causes of existing disorders directed their efforts to the reduction of the war burdens, which still rested heavily upon the necks of the middle and lower classes. In 1816 Brougham led a movement to compel the government to abandon the income tax, which had been greatly increased as a war measure but which the ministry wished to continue. The Whigs also attacked the repressive measures by which the ministry had sought to check the dissemination of political literature. The people quickly responded to these signs of sympathy among the Whig leaders, and in the general election of 1818 the Whigs could show considerable gains in the counties and in boroughs such as London and Westminster, where the popular element had more direct control of the franchise.

The more radical elements outside of parliament, however, were not satisfied with the slow pace of the regular Whig leaders. Pariiamentr ^®^ ^' clear vision, like William Cobbett, the editor of S^^^J^ the Weekly Political Register ^ saw that under the exist- isi9. ing restricted franchise, it was useless to talk of relief,

and sought to direct the present agitation toward securing parlia- mentary reform. Mass meetings were called in the unrepresented towns and the people were encouraged to elect what were called ** Legislatorial Attorneys and Representatives,*' who were to demand seats in parliament in the name of their constituents. At one such meeting held at Manchester in August 1819, where some fifty thousand people were gathered in St. Peter's fields, the crowds were stampeded by the military and many were injured in the crush. The affair, called the massacre of **Peterloo" in imi- tation of ''Waterloo," created widespread indignation and greatly quickened the awakening sympathies of the nation with the laboring classes. The government, however, felt justified in adopting still more vigorous measures of repression, and in Decem- ber, Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, secured the passage of the **Six Acts," the most important of which provided that pub- lic meetings could be held only after six days' notice had been

640 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [ommbIT.

given to the resident Justice of the Peace and that none but free- holders or residents might attend under penalty of fine or imprisonment.

In the midst of the turmoil, poor old Oeorge III., now in his

eighty-second year, passed away, and his son, the fourth of the

Georges, who as regent had been virtually king since

George III., 1812, Succeeded to the full honors of royalty. The

succession of ••. -i-ii-it, i. . , ^. ,

Oeorge IV., ncw King had hardly begun his reign when Sidmouth unearthed a plot to murder the whole Tory ministry, fire the barracks, and raid the Bank and the Tower. Some six of the leaders were tried and executed in February. In April another radical pilot was also foiled at Glasgow, where the revolu- tionists were taken with arms in their hands, and blood was shed.

These affairs proved to the men who were responsible for the government, the seriousness of the rumblings which they heard Theiiberai' ^^®*th their feet, and satisfied them that they could ^i^n^if? never allay the prevalent discontent by building 18212822* churches or enforcing the Six Acts. In 1821, there- fore, some important changes were begun in the ministry. Sid- mouth, the Home Secretary, whose name had been identified with the Six Acts, gave way to Robert Peel, the only man among the old Tories with practical sense and clear intelligence sufiicient to grasp the full meaning of present conditions. Canning, who also belonged to the liberal wing of the Tories, but had left the min- istry rather than mix himself up with a shameful intrigue of the king against his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, entered the min- istry as Secretary for Foreign Affairs and leader of the Commons. Huskisson became President of the Board of Trade; Frederick Robinson, known as "Prosperity Robinson," because of his policy of always talking up prosperity, became Chancellor of the Excheq- uer; and Henry Temple, better known as Lord Palmerston, became Secretary of War. These changes in the ministry gave the Liverpool administration and the Tory party a new lease of life, and under the wise leadership of Canning, Peel, and Huskis- son, entirely reversed the older reactionary policy of Liverpool.

After the second fall of Napoleon, the work of the Congress of Vienna had been resumed at Paris, and Europe finally adjusted

1821-1829] 0 ANTING AND THE HOLY ALLIAKOB 541

to the new conditioDS. The sovereigns of Bussia, Austria, and Prussia, had also invited the other princes of Europe to join them

in the famous *'Holy Alliance" for the purpose of exer- aiuiOuHoiy cising a sort of protectorate over the domestic affairs of

the weaker states and assuring the recognition of '^ Chris- tian principles'' in the government of Europe. But unfortu- nately, with Mettemich, the reactionary minister of Austria, for high priest, the new princely cult under the specious cant of enforcing Christian principles had become simply a league of the despotic governments of Europe against the liberal tendencies of the new nationalism which had been bom of the Napoleonic Wars. Castlereagh had refused to enter the Alliance, but assured Met- temich and Nesselrode, the Bussian minister, that England would not interfere with them in carrying out its purpose.

When Canning became Foreign Secretary, the Holy Alliance had been working its will in Europe, unchecked for seven years.

The leaguing powers had not only stamped out any

Canning and * t-i t* • ii, • ^ • • i j

vu Holy reappearance of liberalism in their own dominions, but had dispatched armies to overthrow the newly estab- lished constitutions of Italy and Spain, and were seriously medi- tating an interference in Portugal, which had imitated the example of Spain in adopting a free constitution, and in the Spanish-American colonies, where the people had taken advantage of the distractions of the mother country to declare their inde- pendence. Canning at once set his face against the further recog- nition of the dangerous doctrine of the right of any prince or group of princes to interfere in the domestic concerns of an inde- pendent people. The mischief in Italy was already done; but he commissioned Wellington to protest at the Congress of Verona against any further interference of the powers in Spain, and when his protest was ignored, he proceeded to recognize the Spanish American Bepublics and by supporting the United States in upholding the Monroe Doctrine, effectually checked the designs of the Holy Alliance, — of Bussia in particular, — upon the New World. In the case of Portugal more vigorous action was neces- sary, but the mobilization of the English regiments was sufficient The Spanish troops who were to carry out the purpose of the

542 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [oaouilT.

Alliance were withdrawn and the liberal goyernment of Portugal was saved for the time.

The almost contemporary uprising of Greece against Turkish despotism afforded Canning still another opportunity of putting

his new foreign policy in force. The contest was piti- Revolt, fully unequal and in their despair the Greeks app^ed

to Czar Alexander, whose support they might expect by reason of the religious sympathy of the Bussians as fellow mem- bers of the Greek Church. But Alexander was too deeply com- mitted to the cause of reactionary despotism, to heed the cry of his suffering co-religionists, and in heartless words that were inspired by Mettemich, replied, **The sovereigns are determined to discountenance rebellion, however and whenever it shows itself." The succession of Nicholas I, in 1825, however, put a new aspect on the relations of the powers to the affairs of Greece.

Nicholas, who had little sympathy with his brother's (ithewwers, idea of government by "Christian principles," and who 0/ X/mdwi, saw the possible advantage of an extension of Russian

influence in southeastern Europe at the expense of Turkey, eagerly accepted Canning's offer to unite in a joint demand upon Turkey in order to force her to accept mediation. But the treachery of the Sultan soon convinced both Canning and Nicholas that if Greece were to be saved, something more serious than an offer of mediation must be attempted, and on July 6, 1827, England, Russia, and France entered into the Treaty of London, by which they agreed to insist upon an armistice and to intervene by force if necessary. A powerful allied fleet under the command of the English admiral Codrington was sent to the coast of Messenia, with the curious instructions to enforce an armistice by cannon shot but "not in a hostile spirit." On the 20th of October, Codrington sailed into the Bay of Navarino, where lay the combined Turkish-Egyptian fleet of ** sixty men of war," carrying twice the armament of the allied squadron. An accident brought on a general action and the Turkish fleet was annihilated. The overwhelming success of Codrington, however, the unexpected thoroughness of his work, was hardly regarded by the western powers with satisfaction. The English ministry, weakened by the

1828-1827] THE LIBERAL TOBY ADHIl^IBTBATIOK 543

recent death of Canning, seemed appalled at the results of its friendly intentions, and the king by the inspiration of Wellington, the new premier, spoke of Navarino as "a most untoward event." England, in fact, had at last awakened to the possible results of the growth of Eussian influence in the eastern Mediterranean, and the ministers were inclined to forget the justice of the cause of the Greeks, in a rising suspicion of the ulterior motives of Nicholas. England and France, therefore, refused to interfere farther, but Russia had no thought of retiring from the conflict. In August, 1829, she dispatched her first army across the Balkans, and ill September, in the Treaty of Adrianople, compelled Turkey to grant the independence of Greece.

While Canning had been upholding the cause of liberal ideas abroad, his colleagues were steadily pushing forward the cause of conservative reform at home, doing all that Tories T^iry admin- could do to cure the industrial and social ills of the era, and still remain Tories. Peel, the able Home Secretary, did much to allay the existing irritation and prepare the way for a better understanding, especially between the middle and lower classes. His influence was particularly felt in the reformation of the criminal laws of England, in which he abolished barbarous punishments and limited the death penalty to serious offenses. Robinson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Hus- kisson, the far-sightel President of the Board of Trade, were mov- ing forward in the direction of greater freedom of labor and trade. The incessant irritation which the progress of industrial revolu- tion had caused between capital and labor, had led to the enact- ment of many unjust laws, by which combinations of workingmen had been forbidden and the migration of the laborer to seek work or better wages, hampered. In 1824 many of these laws were repealed. In 1825 the right of labor to organize in self-defense was recognized in a law which attempted to distinguish between legal and illegal combinations. Huskisson in particular was seeking to realize Pitt's dream of a free commercial policy for England. In 1823 he got through his "Reciprocity of Duties Bill" by which equality of trade was offered to the ships of all nations who would grant the same to Great Britain. The act

544 THB PIB8T £BA OF BEFOBX [ommiIT.

greatly lessened the restraining influence of the old Navigation Acts, which were still in force, and opened the way for a wider application of the doctrine of free trade.

In February, 1827, ill-health had compelled Liverpool to retire, and Canning had continued the administration ^'on the

lines of enlightened Toryism" until his own death in gS^^%, and the following August. The king then first tried ^'Pros- Prime^ peritv Bobinsou," now Lord Goderich, whose nick-

names had apparently kept pace with his titles, and who was now known as "Goody Goderich." Goderich, howeyer, was a weak man and proved utterly unable to manage the con- flicting elements of his cabinet. In January, the king turned to a very different man, and invited Wellington to form a ministry. Wellington and Peel had broken with Canning upon the question of Catholic Emancipation, but the new ministry could not do without the support of the Canning Tories. Canning's old friends, therefore, Huskisson, Palmerston, Grant, and Lamb, remained in possession of their offices, and the question of Catholic Emancipa- tion was left open for each minister to consider as he saw fit.

The new ministry thus started out, tacitly committed to the liberal policy of Canning. But Wellington had really little sym-

pathy with Canning's position and had no idea of drop- Tory rantej, ping into the place of nonentity that Liverpool had held

so long. The opening breach in the Tory ranks was aided in February by the successful attempt of Lord John Busaell to push through the Commons a proposal to repeal the old Test and Corporation Acts. The Canningites voted against their col- leagues, and Peel saved the ministry only by bringing forward as a compromise, a modified form of the Test Act, which prescribed instead of the old test, a simple declaration in which the maker promised "on the faith of a Christian, never to injure or subvert the Established Church." The principle implied in the repeal was thus recognized; and Dissenters, after a strug:gle of one hun- dred and fifty years were at last accorded the legal right to hold civil office.

The Tory ministry had been saved by the tact of Peel, but even his ingenuity could not devise compromises enough to hold

1829, 1830J OAIHOLIO SKAKOIPATIOK 545

such ill-assorted elements together when they met the grand crux of parliamentary Reform which had now been before parliament since the election of 1826. The Canningites retired and Welling- ton was thas left alone with Peel to organize his ministry upon purely high Tory lines.

Wellington was now supreme in his ministry. He could not however, control the elements of reform that were gathering without. The Act of Lord Kussell, which had relieved tmancip<i' Disseuters from the annoyance of the Test Act, natu- rally suggested the relief of the other wing of the Christian community, who since the days of the early Stuarts had suffered under still more grievous laws; and in May, Francis Bur- dett offered a measure for the relief of Catholics. The bill suc- ceeded in the Commons, but failed in the Lords. It was impossible, however, to let the matter rest here, and when the electors of County Clare, Ireland, returned Daniel O'Connell, who as a Catholic could not legally sit in parliament, the issue seemed so serious that Wellington and Peel determined to make a virtue of necessity and lead their party in undertaking the necessary reform. As the measure came from the hands of Peel it substituted for the old oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and abjuration, a new form, which a Catholic might take without doing violence to his con- science, admitting him to membership in corporations, and to all political ofiSces except those of Regent, Lord Chancellor in Eng- land or Ireland, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The bill readily passed the Commons, but was carried through the Lords only by the influence of Wellington.

It was impossible, however, for Wellington, constituted as he was, to keep pace with the advancing spirit of reform. He had broken with the high Tories by supporting Catholic linaUmmin^ emancipation, but he would not listen to the demands of the WTiigs for parliamentary reform. The death of George IV. in June 1830, moreover, and the succession of his popular brother as William IV., whose democratic sympathies were well known, greatly encouraged the more liberal elements, and when at the opening of William^s first parliament in the autumU) Wellington reasserted his confidence in the existing; legis-

546 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [wuxubIT.

lative system, it was understood that the fall of the Wellingtoji ministry was at hand. Before the end of the following month the resignations were received.

Lord Charles Grey, the veteran Whig champion of parliamen- tary reform, who had presented his first reform measure thirty- Pariiamen- s®^®^ years before, was summoned to form a ministry. d^ea^din I^^skisson had been recently killed in an accident at Hmue, 1831. the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool railway, but the other Canningites, Goderich, Palmerston, and Lamb, now Viscount Melbourne, were invited to places as a matter of course, while the Whigs were represented by Althorp, Bussell, and Brougham. The ministry, therefore, to all intents was not only a Whig ministry, but was pledged to the cause of parliamentary reform, and Bussell was instructed at once to prepare a sketch for a proper bill. On March 1, 1831 the bill was presented to parlia- ment; it was supported, as Grey declared, by **the unanimoufl coiftent of the whole government." Comprehensive as the bill was, however, it was saved on the second reading only by one Tote, to be lost in the committee. The ministry, however, was strong in the support of the good natured, simple-hearted, and affable king, who was deeply touched by the sufferings of his people and really wanted to have something done. It was strong, also, in the support of the counties and of those boroughs where the more democratic franchise prevailed. The opposition was naturally entrenched in the "rotten boroughs" which were fight- ing for life; some of which, as Old Sarum or Gatton, had lost their ancient population altogether, yet continued to send repre- sentatives to parliament. The ministry determined to appeal to the country, and on April 22, the king prorogued parliament as the first step towards dissolution:

As the ministry had foreseen, it swept the counties and larger boroughs; a second bill was speedily brought forward, and in spite Pariiamen- ^^ ^^^K ^^^ tedious tactics of delay on the part of the ^dcfMtldin opposition, passcd the Commons by a vote of three Lords, 1831. hundred and forty-five to two hundred and thirty-six. The attitude of the Lords was still doubtful; their conservative sympathies, however, were known, and to fortify the popular

1882] THB REFORM BILL OF 1883 547

cause, sixteen new peers had been created in hope of diminishing the hostile majority. The bishops, however, almost to a man were opposed to any change in the existing order, and when the vote was taken, of the forty-one votes of the hostile majority, twenty- one were from the church.

In the meanwhile, the agitation of the public had continued to increase in extent and violence. The fashion of forming "Political Pubiicinur- Unions," or societies, in which the middle and lower «^jjjp«^^^ classes leagued for the agitation of reform, had extended r^orm, to all the greater towns; fervid orators began to talk of

using physical force, and vague hints were thrown out of the pos- sibility of raising armies. At Birmingham on October 3 the people declared that they would refuse to pay taxes if the bill were thrown out by the Lords. In Bristol an infuriated mob vented its displeasure upon public buildings and was dispersed only after a struggle with the military in which twenty people were killed.

In December, parliament resumed its sitting; the Commons at once began upon a third bill, and pushed it through the prelim- inary stages before the Christmas holidays. It reached

The third ./ o j

bill in the the third reading on March 23 and in April appeared in the Lords. Here Wellington rallied against it all the conservative sympathies of the aristocracy. The fight was carried on with intense bitterness. The ministry, however, had no mind to yield again to the hostile majority in the Lords, and finally forced from the king a written pledge to create enough new peers, about fifty, to assure the success of the bill. The threat was sufficient. On June 4, 1832 Wellington accompanied by a large body of the peers withdrew, and the bill received the nominal assent of the Lords by a vote of 106 to 22.

As the Reform Bill finally passed, fifty-six boroughs that had a population of less than two thoasand were totally disfranchised; thirty-two boroughs that had a population of less than four thousand were allowed one member each. One hundred and forty-three seats were thus released. They were redistributed among twenty-two newly created boroughs empow- ered to return two members each, and twenty-one to return one each; sixty-five seats were divided among the counties, and thir-

548 THE FIRST EBA OF BEFOBX [wteuAHlT.

teen were left to be assigned to Scotland and Ireland. The ancient irregular borough franchise was displaced by a new £10 household franchise, but resident freemen who had possessed the franchise before 1831 were allowed to retain their votes. In the counties the franchise was extended to copyholders and leasehold- ers, and to tenants at will who paid a rental of at least £50 a year. The time to be given to a county election was reduced from fifteen to two days; borough elections were reduced to one day. Bills were also passed by which, of the seats reserved for Scotland and Ireland, Scotland received eight and Ireland received five. The franchise was remodelled in both countries upon lines somewhat similar to those adopted in England.

Thus another great stride had been taken in the progress of representative government. The Bevolution of 1688 had settled Constuvr ^^® position of the king in the new constitution, but it n^a^e^S^ had left parliament virtually in the hands of a limited **"• oligarchy, independent of the nation and ont of touch

with the great middle class. The Reform of 1832 dethroned the oligarchy and transferred the control of parliament to the farmers and shopkeepers. The workingmen, however, the great laboring class, who had done so much to force the issue upon the govern- ment, were apparently farther from the goal than ever.

The energy which the Beform Bill agitation had called out,

was by no means spent, and the ministers soon found themselves

confronted with a list of serious and far reaching issues

The Irish ' which their position as reform leaders compelled them

**Tith6 Wot.**

to consider. The state of Ireland naturally first claimed attention, where a "Tithe War" had sprung up as a result of the refusal of the Irish peasantry to pay longer the rates which were prescribed by law for the support of the Anglican clergy. The extreme destitution increased the difficulty and the collection of tithes had become quite impossible. A '^Coercion Act" was proposed and passed in spite of O'Connell's opposition. The act gave special powers to the officers of the law in order to repress the lawlessness which in parts of Ireland had created almost a reign of terror. This was followed by a "Church Bill" which attempted to diminish the burdens of the people by cutting down the number

1882-1884] FACTORY LE0I8LATI0K ' 549

of Irish bishops and reducing the incomes of the remaining; it also held out hope of the final extinction of the tithe system.

The slavery question, also, demanded the attention of the, reform parliament. Stanley, the chief secretary for Ireland,

whose policy of ''a quick succession of kicks and kind- s/awn/, ^u- ness," had made him thoroughly detested by the Irish

people, was transferred to the Colonial Office, whiere he found ample opportunity to exercise his fiery spirit in handling the slave question. He came before parliament with a proposition to redeem the slaves by paying their owners £20,000,000. The act was to take effect April 1, 1834. The reform parliament was strongly abolitionist; and the passionate eloquence of Stanley in picturing the cruelties and injustice which characterized slavery in the colonies, aided by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, upon whose shoulders had fallen the mantle of Wilberforce, met a ready response, and in August 1833 the '^ Emancipation Act" became a law. Wilberforce lived to hear of the second reading of the bill; he died July 29.

The relief of the black slave could not fail to call attention to the sufferings of the white slaves at home, the tens of thousands

of British children who were toiling out their lives to umum, iSsi onrich English investors. Some attempts at improving

the condition of factory children had been made in 1802, and again in 1819. But the act of 1833, presented by Lord Ashley, known as the ''Third Factory Act," differed from the others in that it applied to all industries, forbidding the employ- ment of children under nine years of age altogether, and of women or of young people under eighteen, for more than twelve hours a day. Provisions, also, were to be made for the education of fac- tory children.

Another measure introduced by the Grey ministry proposed changes in the Poor-Laws. A commission of inquiry had been The**P')or- ^ppointed in 1832, and its report, received in 1834, n^tAet^ amply proved the urgent need of reform. An act of *««• 1796 had provided for giving individual relief to the

poor. The laborer's wages were thus eked out by a pittance from the government. The greed of the manufacturers, however^

650 fHB FIRST ERA OF REFORK [woxualT.

80on fonnd a way to take advantage of the charity of the govern- ment and by paying only pauper wages made it impossible for an independent worker to live at all. The effect of such legislation was to encourage pauperism and steadily increase the burden to the state, until in 1833 the total cost of poor-relief exceeded eight million pounds, a grievous burden for a population of fourteen million. The new law virtually returned to principles laid down in Elizabeth's reign; it drew a line between poverty and pauper- ism, and sought to relieve the former without creating the latter. Parishes were combined into unions with one workhouse, instead of several, and relief was given as a rule only to those who were destitute and willing to submit to the test of going to the work- house for it. This measure reduced the poor-rates by upwards of three million pounds in three years.

Meanwhile the influence of the Grey ministry had already begun to wane. Few ministries have ever been more useful ; none

have ever introduced so many sensible reforms in so Greymin- short a time. It had not only successfully handled the

question of parliamentary reform, the Irish question, the slavery question, the factory question, and the Poor Laws; it had also reconstructed the Bank of England, and renewed the East India Company's charter for twenty years, and had ended its commercial monopoly by throwing the Eastern trade open to all competitors. Abroad, also, the policy of Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, had been quite as successful. The reforms, however, which the ministry had inaugurated at home had been too heroic; they had followed each other with such bewildering rapidity, that public opinion began to take alarm and the conservative elements gathered new strength. Grey, moreover, had a feeling that his work was done; he was weary of office, and in July 1834 formally tendered his resignation.

The Grey ministry was allowed to remain vrith William Lamh, Viscount Melbourne, as Premier. The ministry, however, bad lost much of its old strength; the Whigs were breaking up into as many factions as there were new ideas to be exploited in the heads of the various leaders; the king, moreover, had become suspicions and hostile. In November he even dismissed the reform nuniatrf

1837] ACCESSION OF YIOTOBIA 551

and later dissolved the reform parliament ; bat the failure of Peel to command a ruling majority in the new parliament forced on

the king the necessity of again trying Melbourne and bmime the Whigs, who addressed themselves to the work of

"""'"^- completing the cycle of reforms which has made the reign of William IV. famous. The act of 1832 had left the corpora- tious of the old boroughs in the hands of the self-elected ring, who, though deprived of their electoral monopoly, still adminis- tered local affairs to their own profit or pleasure. Another act, therefore, was necessary to complete the act of 1832, and in 1835 parliament transferred the control of borough government from the corporations to representatives elected by the resident rate- payers; they applied the measure to one hundred and seventy*- eight boroughs. London, however, was not included. Measures for the reform of municipalities and the tithe system in Ire- land were also proposed in the Commons but defeated in the Lords. A Tithe Commutation Act for England, which per- mitted the commutation of tithes in kind into a money pay- ment, succeeded better. The same year the division lists of the House of Commons were published for the first time by the House itself.

In June, 1837, William IV. died and was succeeded by Victoria, the daughter of George III.'s fourth son, the duke of Kent. In

Hanover, the law allowed the crown to pass to male Queen Vie- heirs Only, so that Ernest, duke of Cumberland, the

fifth son of George III., succeeded to the continental possessions of the House of Hanover; and Hanover once more swung clear of its connection with the English crown. Victoria had just passed her eighteenth birthday; her youth, her grace, her dignity, the essential goodness of her character, appealed powerfully to the patriotism and sympathy of all her subjects. Her accession was received with universal enthusiasm. She regarded Melbourne, moreover, with confidence and filial affection; so that the change of rulers added somewhat to the strength of the Whig ministry.

In November, the young queen met her first parliament. Her opening address called attention to the condition of Canada and

652 THE FIB8T EBA OF REFORM {vtcnrnk

Ireland, where affairs had for some time worn a serious aspect The troubles in Canada dated back to the eighteenth century.

Pitt's Canada Bill of 1791 had divided the old French Canada, province into two separate provinces, each with its own

governor-general, a legislative council, and a represent- ative legislative assembly. The council was appointed by the crown and was responsible only to the Colonial OfQce. The result was to concentrate political power in each province in the hands of a few wealthy families; the administration became corrupt and ruinously extravagant. In the spring and summer of 1837, mat- ters came to a deadlock between the provincial representative assemblies and the respective councils. The Canadians demanded that the appropriation of the funds raised by taxation be put wholly in the hands of their representatives ; that the council be changed to an elective body; and that with the exception of the governor, the members of the executive staff be responsible to the provincial parliament. Lord Russell offered a series of resolutions which were intended to be conciliatory, in which he recognized the exist- ence of abuses, but unfortunately asserted the impossibility of granting to the provinces a control of the executive ministers of government.

The Canadians were not satisfied, and when the provincial governors attempted to use repressive measures in order to bring

to terms such leaders as Papineau, the Speaker of the in Canada, Assembly of the Lower Province, the provinces broke

out in insurrection. Although the rebellion was easily suppressed, the British government was seriously alarmed. The revolt had found many sympathizers along the American frontier and there was grave danger of complications with the United States. The American vessel, Caroline, had been used to take pro- visions from the American shore to a body of insurgents who were operating from Xavy Island in the Niagara River. The British officials had seized the boat in American waters, set it on fire, and sent it over the falls.

The ministry saw that a serious mistake had been made. The Russell resolutions were hastily withdrawn and Lord Durham, an able and energetic character, was dispatched to Canada as a spe-

1888-1840] THE IRISH POOR-LAW 553

cial commissioner with unusual powers. Oreat as were his powers, Durham managed to exceed them, and the opposition forced the

ministry to recall him. Durham had remained in the of the carui' country long enough, however, to discover that there

were other causes of trouble that lay back of the consti- tutional question. The population of Upper Canada consisted largely of En,glish; Lower Canada consisted of French. The two provinces were jealous of each other, and the two races were upon anything but friendly terms. Pitt's unfortunate division into an English Canada and a French Canada had only emphasized the race differences, and encouraged race jealousies. What the Canadas needed, fully as much as constitutional reform, was such a political union as in time would make of the two peoples one nation. Durham's report was acjsepted and was made the basis of the Canada Bill of 1840. Bv this bill the two Canadas were united under one governor-general, a legislative council, consist- ing of life members nominated by the crown, and a representative assembly. The responsibility of the ministry to the provincial parliament was not granted in the bill, but the principle has been since fully established by practice. The appropriation of public funds, also, with the exception of a fixed civil list, was entrusted to the popular branch of the provincial parliament.

The affairs of Ireland, in the meanwhile, had proved fully as vexatious to the ministry, if not as urgent, as the affairs of

Canada. A commission of inquiry had laid bare a con- PfHtrLaw, dition of misery which exceeded the expectations even

of the Irish members, and in 1838 parliament to mend matters sought to extend the English workhouse system to Ire- land. It was taken for granted that an able bodied Irishman who wanted work could find it and that the ordinary living of the Irish poor was to be preferred to life in the workhouse. The suffering of the Irish, however, was due to the fact, not that the people were unwilling to work, but that they had outgrown the ability of their little island to feed them. The law, therefore, added little to the credit of the ministry. Instead of allaying the sufferings of the Irish, it only added to the distress of the destitute, and put a new premium on pauperism.

554 THE FIB8T EBA OF BEFOBM [yicRMB&

From the Poor-Law tbo ministry proceeded to take up the questions of tithes and corporations. In both cases it succeeded *'Tri»h Tithe ^ putting new laws on the statute books, but only MSsinniS!^^ after it had given unmistakable signs of its dech'ning ^^^•" strength by accepting from the conseryative opposition

amendments which made the laws virtually conservative measures.

The nineteenth century had brought with it a further develop- ment of the inventive genius which marked the close of the eight- eenth. The canal system of Brindley and the improved roads of Telford and Macadam had done much to encourage industry bj providing better facilities of exchange. Yet the question was very early asked whether steam could not be used as the motive power in locomotion. The question was answered in part by Fulton in America in 1811, an4 by Bell in Scotland in 1812, and ^J2S^ long before Victoria had begun her reign, English shipyards were turning out their first essays at steam- craft. The application of steam to land travel, however, had met with an apparently insuperable obstacle in the absence of a road- bed of the requisite smoothness and solidity. Some wild attempts had been made on country roads, to the consternation of the rural population and the inevitable destruction of engineer and crew. But although a suggestion lay at hand in the horse tram- ways which were in common use in the mining regions, all efforts to get at a practical solution of the problem had proved fruitless, until George Stephenson, the son of a poor collier of Northumber- land, and a self-educated man, as the result of many experiments finally constructed an engine which would run on a prepared track. In 1825 he opened the Stockton and Darlington railway for the conveyance of both passengers and freight. Five years later he opened the Manchester and Liverpool line when his engines outstripped all competitors, attaining a speed of thirty-six miles an hour.

Thus far, the industrial development of England and the reforms of parliament apparently had benefited only the upper classes. The poor laborer found himself as in the eighteenth century still swinging between moderate prosperity and abject poverty. The Poor-Law, which cut him off from state helpi

1868, 1839] THE CHAfiTISTS 555

seemed particularly harsh. Food was dear, work scarce, wages low,* and his home, especially if in the city, filthy and overcrowded. Sometimes a whole family, parents and children, occa* M» ^^as9. P^®^ * single cellar which was generally wet and foul. It is said that in Manchester one-tenth of the population lived in these dens below the street. The working people, although generally ignorant, yet had their own ideas as to the reforms needed, and in 1838, in a meeting near Birmingham, they drew up a national petition, or "People's Charter," which is remarkable both for its moderation and for its reasonableness. They demanded (1) annual parliaments, (2) universal suffrage, (3) vote by ballot, (4) abolition of the property qualification for members of parliament, and (5) payment for service in parlia- ment. A demand for equal electoral districts had been originally included in the list but was later withdrawn. In June 1839 the charter supported, it was said, by a million signatures, was pre- sented'to the House of Commons, but only to be rejected. The people expressed their disappointment in rioting and other lawless acts; but they were easily put down and the great movement from which so much had been expected subsided.

The era of the Chartist agitation was marked, also, by a revival of the old agitation against the Com Laws. Daring ten years of Revival of prosperity, the Com Laws had dropped out of sight, aaafnit^ but the series of unfavorable seasons which began in Cum Laws, 1337 had once more called attention to the fact that the price of bread was raised by artificial means, and that much of the ensuing distress was needless and was due directly to the selfishness of landholders and their tenants. Associations were formed in London and other places in order to begin a systematic agitation against the unjust laws. Prominent in the movement was Richard Cobden, a calico printer of Manchester, who had traveled much, observed keenly, and gathered a vast amount of Talnable information concerning the social conditions which pre- vailed in Europe and America. Another man of the era, no less noteworthy, was the Quaker manufacturer of Rochdale, John Bright, whose marvelous oratory and deep sympathies for the people made him for years a conspicuous political force. During

656 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [vicrau

the Melbourne ministry the direct influence of these men was exerted altogether outside of parliament. Within parliament the cause was represented by Charles Villiers who persisted in offering each year a bill for the abolition of the restrictions upon the bread of the poor.

Since 1830, with the exception of a few months, the conduct of foreign affairs had remained in the hands of Lord Palmerston. In the main his relations with France had been friendly, policy of although he had stoutly opposed the project of annex- ing Belgium. In handling the eastern question, how- ever, a far more delicate problem, Palmerston found it not so easy to keep on good terms with his neighbor. The barbarism of Turkey probably was no greater, her ferocious cruelties no more flagrant than in earlier centuries, but the Christian states of Europe now knew more about them and their people were begin- ning to demand that the common nuisance be abated. But Tur- key, Palmerston believed, if kept under western influence might be led to give a respectable government to her own people and support England against the encroachments of Russia in the east. Thiers, the wily minister of Louis Philippe, had at first supported England, but in order to secure French influence, he had of late begun to encourage Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, in his attempt to wrest Syria from the Sultan. Palmerston took alarm at once, and declared that England could not allow France to con- trol the road to India. In July 1840, he succeeded in forming an alliance with Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Turkey, nominally to end the revolt of Mehemet Ali, but really to put a stop to French intrigues in Egypt and Syria. Thiers desired war, but Louis Philippe had no idea of imperiling his throne in order to support the schemes of his minister, and readily accepted the resignation of Thiers. Guizot, an advocate of peace and an ardent admirer of English institutions, took his place. An Anglo-Austrian squadron captured Acre and forced Mehemet Ali to terms, compelling him to restore the Sultan's fleet which had deserted to the rebels, and to promise to content himself with Egypt, his hereditary possession.

In his conduct of affairs in the remoter east, Palmerston was likewise successful, although the result can hardly be said to

1887-1689] BOWLAKD HILL AND POSTAL BEFOBIC 557

redound to the credit of England. In 1840 England began her first war with China, which was fought virtually to force Indian The Opium ^P^"'^ upon the Chinese. The ministry had nobly laid cfSna^ down the principle that "her majesty's government 1840-1842, could uot interfere for the purpose of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of the country with which they trade" ; but unfortunately Ihe government did not have the courage to stand by this sound principle, and allowed itself to be dragged into the war on the plea that it had already begun. The Chinese of course could make no effective resistance, and in 1842 were compelled to cede the Island of Hong Kong, to open five ports to British trade, and pay a heavy bill of indemnity.

Until 1839 the postal system had remained untouched by the reforming mania of the generation. Some improvements had been

introduced since the beginning of George III.'s reign, andpmtai but iho systcm was still far behind the needs of the

age. The poor were practically excluded from letter- writing, and the idea that the price must vary with the distance also precluded the use of the mails for business or politics. In 1837, Rowland Hill began investigating the postal system and soon was able to formulate the principles which lie at the basis of the modern system, that is, that the cost of carrying a letter does not vary with the distance, and that up to a certain point it costs the government no more to carry many letters than one. Hill, accord- ingly, proposed to charge one uniform rate; to reduce the price to one penny, and to secure prepayment by the use of a stamp. His plan was adopted by the government in 1839. The increased facility in the use of the mails came in just in time to aid power- fully in the Com Law agitation.

In the same year the government made an important advance in the encouragement of public education. Since 1833 parliament

had regularly appropriated £20,000 for this purpose. ^ol^, ^^^ '^^ ^^^^ ^^ rsi^^A. the annual grant to £30,000, and

taking the administration of the fund from the treasury put it into the hands of a special committee of the Privy Council. Yet parliament was by no means awake to the needs of the three million English children, of whom fully one-half were growing u|^

558 THB FIBST EEA OF BEFOBM [viorau

in a state of utter ignorance. The very year in which it raised its appropriations for the education of the children of England to the magnificent sum of £30,000, it voted £70,000 for building stables for the queen's horses.

An event of prime importance to the happiness of the young queen that is associated with the last days of the Melbourne min- istry, was her marriage on February 10, 1840, to the riaoeofthe young prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert, as he is commonly known, was a singularly felicitooB combination of the scholar, the poet, and the man of affairs. He grasped fully the spirit of the English constitution and compre- hended as none of the Hanoverian monarchs had, that henceforth the strength of the English monarchy lay in the character of the monarch, and that if the monarchy were to rise in the esteem of the nation, the monarch must be a good man. He grasped, also, as neither Wellington nor the easy-going Melbourne had, the sig^ nificance of the new drift given to English politics by the reformis of the last decade, and exerted his influence to bring the monarch; into touch with the new era which had opened. It is needless to say that such a man was deeply loved and respected for his own sake by the young queen, who needed just such a sage and dis- interested counsellor, one whom she could trust when her minis- ters failed her, and that when he died in 1861, his death was mourned by the people as a national calamity.

The Melbourne ministry had long since exhausted the new stock of popularity that had come to it from the accession of the young queen, and had been for some time steadily Meiixmme losing ground. Melbourne had actually resigned in 1839, but upon the failure of Peel to secure the confi- dence of the queen, had resumed his duties. The pendulum, however, which had been so long swinging towards reform, had already begun the backward sweep, and when in 1841 Melbourne appealed to the country upon a proposition to substitute a moder- ate duty for the old Com Law tax, the conservatives rallied the agrarian interests, and came back to Westminster with a majority of 81 members in the new parliament. Melbourne promptly resigned and Feel was again invited to undertake the government

1841] BOBEBT PEEIr 559

CHAPTER Vm

PEEL AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PABTIE8. THE OBIMEAN WAB. PALKEB8T0N AND BBITISH FOBEIGN POLICY

VICTORIA, 1841-1865

The remaining years of Victoria's reign fall into two strongly marked periods. The first period closes with the death of Pal- merston in 1865, and is marked by the dissolution of of vidoria^a the old Whig and Tory parties, and the reorganization of the political elements of the nation about the new issues which have since divided Liberals and Conservatiyes. The second period is marked by the struggle of the new parties to con- trol and direct the policy of Great Britain, and by the far-reaching reforms which have resulted.

Peel began his administration in September 1841. Nominally the appointment was a Tory triumph. Peel, however, was a thorough-going business man, and inclined to approach 5*p»S* public questions from a practical rather than from a sentimental point of view. lie had stood out against the Reform Bill of 1832 to the last; but, like Wellington, he had then accepted the results as final, and, abandoning the name of Tory which had become associated in the minds of many with the older reactionary elements which the nation had repudiated, under the new name of * * Conservatives, ' ' he had rallied his shat- tered ranks, and taken his stand apon what was virtually conservative Whig ground. On many points, however, he was still far in advance of the great mass of his party, which still represented the landlords rather than the mill-owners and manufacturers, and was haunted by the traditions of Gastlereagh and Addington. The first efforts of the new ministry were addressed to a reor- ganization of the national finances, which had been left in a lamentable condition by the outgoing Whigs. In many tariff and cases the existiuff tariff was virtually prohibitive and theineome the treasury had been steadily depleted by the dimin-

Tax JM3i> »/ ^ tf

ishing returns. Peel, therefore, selected 750 articles of common consnmption and by reducing the tariff hoped to encourage importation, and thus lay the foundation for a subsQ-

560 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [vktobu

quent increase in the national revenues. He believed, also, that the great gain to the consumers would more than atone for the direct loss to the protected interests. He saw, moreover, that the first effect upon the treasury would be to (Replete still farther the present income, and proposed to tide over the interval by an Income Tax, but under pledge that it should be dropped at the close of five, years^ The pledge, however, was never redeemed. Before the five years had expired. Peel was oat of office, and in the steady advance of England towards free trade since, his suc- cessors have never been able to dispense with the increasingly important revenue derived from this source.

The Peel administration fell heir, also, to the annoyance caused by the troublesome agitations which had been gathering new strength during the later days of the Melbourne min- ^ain^^^^ istry. The Chartists were still holding monster meet- ings and sending up their monster petitions to parliament. The tones of these petitions, moreover, were grow- ing more persistent. But Peel was not a minister to be coerced into action, and after a petition with a million signatures had been ignominiously turned out of parliament without so much as a hearing, the Chartists subsided again for a season.

A far more serious agitation appeared in Ireland, where O'Con- nell had been for some time stirring up the country upon a propo- sition to repeal the Act of Union and reestablish the irOihqiics' Irish parliament. His plan was, by holding monster (rcimncu meetings at different historic places, to keep the matter before the English government until it should be forced to yield to moral pressure and comply with the demands of a long- suffering people. He disclaimed all thought of violence, or of seeking his ends by unlawful measures. But in 1842 a body of younger enthusiasts, to whom the ponderous methods of O'Con- nell seemed slow as well as aimless, broke away in a separate party which they called the "Young Ireland Party." They adopted the maxims and watchword of the United Irishmen of '98, and proposed to secure by arms what they could not gain by peaceful measures. The party was small, their cause hopeless, and by their rashness they soon brought the larger but more innocent

1842-1847] DAmBL O'COKKBLL 561

moyement of O'Oonnell into discredit with the government. O'Connell had secured a great meeting at Glontarf, but the gov- ernmeut thought it time to interfere and forbade the meeting. O'Connell, true to his principle of securing his ends by moral suasion only, yielded, and issued a proclamation rocalling the summons. He was arrested, however, tried and convicted on a charge of conspiracy. An appeal was made to the House of Lords, and the Lords had the wisdom to reverse the decision of the lower court. But the hold of O'Connell on the Irish people was broken. The Young Ireland Party left him in disgust. The people refused longer to support useless meetings that evaporated in fine speeches, and turned to the hotheads, who only waited an opportunity to attempt to win by violence what O'Connell had failed to secure by milder measures. O'Connell finally retired to Italy where he died in 1847.

The agitation, however, had not been altogether fruitless. Peel saw that something must be radically wrong where there was

so much disquiet, and appointed a commission to vresfar inquire into the working of the Irish land system. He

also made a public grant to the Catholic College of Maynooth to assist in the better education of the priesthood, and established three secular colleges at Belfast, Cork, and Gal way, known as Queen's Colleges, where Catholic and Protestant youth might be trained side by side. Of even more importance were tlie results of tlie commission in revealing to the public by an authoritative report the deep reproach of the Irish land system. Nothing could be done yet, however; Peel's party were against him. The dead inertia of old Tory bigotry could not be over- come in a day.

In the early days of Peel's ministry, also, the Webster- Ashbur- ton Treaty brought to a peaceful issue the long dispute with the

United States over the boundary of Canada and Maine. iMmndary The Maine boundary, however, was hardly settled

before the good understanding between the two coun- tries was again threatened by a similar dispute over the Oregon boundary in the northwest. But after a good deal of bluster and noisy ttdk on the part of American politicians, whose common

562 BISSOLUTIOlf OF THB OLD PABTIS8 [vtoraiu

sense had been wafted away on the rhythmic jingle of their ''fifty« four forty or fight," the people came back to earth and accepted the present boundary, giving the English Vancouver Island and allowing them to share in the navigation of the Columbia River.

Peel was compelled during his early years to give a good deal of his attention to colonial matters. The outward expansion of England had never ceased during all the early decades SraorSs. ^' ^^® century. The Napoleonic wars had greatly broad- ened and extended the sphere of colonial enterprise. South Australia had been colonized in 1836. In 1837, the Dutch, who had not taken kindly to English rule in the old Gape settle- ment, had turned their backs upon the colony and passed over the northern boundary into Natal. Here they had remained inde- pendent until 1843, when the English once more took possession. In 1839 the English had established themselves at Aden at the month of the Bed Sea. In 1840 they began a permanent settlement in New Zealand. In India, also, the English had been steadily pushing forward. Under Lord William Bentinck the suttee was abolished and the thugs broken up. Bentinck, also, gave his sup- port to Christian missions, which the company had discouraged from policy. He introduced the steamboat on the Ganges and pro- posed a scheme of carrying mails to Europe by way of the Red Sea.

In the thirties a new menace to English prestige in India appeared in the extension of Russian influence in the Afghan country and led directly to the unfortunate attempt of Lord Auckland, Bentinck 's successor, to set up in Afghanistan a vassal prince, who should be committed to English interests. The Afghan War was hardly over before a destructive war with the Sikhs of the Punjab began. After some of the hardest fighting which the English have ever met in India, in 1849, under the rigorous administration of Dalhousie, the power of the Sikhs was finally broken ; the important Punjab was annexed, and Lahore and the whole region of the *'Five Rivers" passed under British rule.

Peel's attempts to reduce tariffs thus far had not affected the Corn Laws. The agitation had been kept before the public by Cobden and Bright, and their meetings, especially those held in

1848-1846] KBPBAL OF THE OOBK LAWS 563

Govent Oarden Theatre in 1843, had attracted considerable attention. Yet crops had been good, the price of grain moderate,

and public interest had flagged. But in 1845 the atten- LawaoUO' tion of the public was again directed to the matter by a

complete failure of the crops and a corresponding rise in the price of bread. In Ireland, where the heavy rains had com- pletely destroyed the potato crop, the case was even more serious than in England. With millions of people starving for cheap bread. Peel felt that it was no time to talk of 'interests," and proposed that the council declare the ports open for the free importation of bread stuffs. He was overruled, however, by the opposition of Stanley and Wellington, and abandoned his humane proposition. Then the Whig leaders, who had been as much opposed to the repeal of the Corn Laws as the Tories, took the matter up. It was not a time, however, to allow party considera- tions to dictate a policy, and in spite of the stolid indifference of the great mass of the Tories, Peel himself determined to champion the cause of free bread. Many of his colleagues, including Welling- ton, agreed to stand by him. But the representatives of the great wheat-growing shires, who thought they beheld in the repeal of the Com Laws the ruin of their constituents, and of the old Tory families, whose wealth lay still in agricultural lands, stoutly opposed him. They were led by Benjamin Disraeli, a man whom the House had not yet taken seriously. He was of Jewish descent ; he had been known to the public as a writer of some '^ curious, high-flown novels,'* and to his friends for his gorgeous taste in the matter of dress. About this man with the strange oriental mind the Tory protectionists rallied. Yet in spite of a stubborn fight.

Peel carried his measure. The existing duties were to ComLauM, be reduced rapidly during a period of three years and

then to remain fixed at one shilling per quarter, which was to be retained as a registration duty. In the case of Ireland even the registration duty was at first suspended and finally abolished.

Peel had carried his point and abolished the Com Laws ; but his humanity had disrupted his party. Too many bitter things had been said on both sides to be easily forgotten or lightly for-

664 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PABTIBS [vktoka

^yen; and when, later, Peel bronght in the ^^Anns Act," which was designed to repress the lawlessness that had arisen in Ireland

as the result of so mach suffering, Disraeli and liis of the Tory followers took the opportunity for revenge, and by

going over to the opposition, defeated Peel so hopelessly that he at once resigned. The breach was so serious and the real sympathies of the Peelites, as with the Ganningites in 1828, were so much with the more liberal and progressive Whigs, that in time most of Peel's followers were merged in the ranks of their old enemies. Among these were George Hamilton Gordon, earl of Aberdeen, and William Ewart Gladstone.

Lord John Sussell, whose name had been so long associated with the cause of reform and who had been among the first of the

Whig leaders to annonnce his conversion to the repeal ministry, of the Com Laws, was the natural standard bearer of

1S4S-1SS2

the new liberal party formed of progressive Whigs and Peelite Tories. Lord Palmerston became Foreign Secretary ; Earl Grey, son of the old Whig reformer, became Colonial and War Secretary, and Macaulay, the historian, became Paymaster of the Forces. The ministry, however, was not strong; Russell was not really an able man, and Palmerston, the strong man of the minis- try, who had been originally a Canningite Tory, had not the full confidence of the Liberals.

Ireland, as usual, demanded all the spare attention of the gov- ernment; a repetition of the disaster of 1845 had again brought

one-half the population of the island to the verge of inifSarS* starvation. The government wrestled bravely with the

problem; the Arms Act was taken up and carried with the help of Peel, whose magnanimity shines out in this connection in marked contrast with the vindictiveness of the man who had dethroned him. An '/Encumbered Estates Court" was set up with the hope partly of enabling bankrupt landlords to sell a portion of their lands and pay off some of their liabilities, and partly of introducing a new class of landlords who would bring in fresh enterprise and capital. To relieve the imme- diate distress relief works were established, and finally the govern- ment undertook the actual feeding of the population, opening

1845-1849] IRELAND 565

soup-kitchens and free food depots in all parts of the famine- smitten country.

In the meanwhile, the Irish landlords had got hold of a danger- ous half-truth: that the cutting up of their estates into small farms had been the cause of most of the trouble. As ^ISrSlandL^ soon as the famine was over, therefore, in their own way they set abont mending matters, uniting the small farms into large farms, raising rents, and evicting unnecessary tenants. In a few years the work of reorganizing Ireland had reduced its population from 8,000,000 to 5,000,000.

The year 1848 was a year of general revolutionary activity on the continent. It would be strange if in England and partic- Therevoiu- ^^^^^J ^^ Ireland, where the experiences of the past two ^Enaiand*^ ycars had been so bitter, there should not be some and irnand, sympathetic movement. In England, however, the movement evaporated in a farcical attempt of the Chartists to invade parliament with another one of their monster petitions. In Ireland the deliberate attempts of the Young Ireland Party to goad the people into revolt, for a time caused some anxiety; but the people had been so crushed by their sufferings, that they had no heart for a strife of arms, and the attempt ended with the transportation of the leaders, Mitchell, Meagher, and O'Brien.

A more congenial field for the activity of the Liberal ministry

presented itself in the colonies, where it was not compelled to

prejudice its cause by repressive measures. In 1849,

The HuMtVl J r f

minuitry and Russcll introduced into the Australian colonies, a sys« tem of local self-government, similar to that which the Melbourne ministry had introduced in Canada in 1840. The same year, also, saw the successful repeal of the last of the old Naviga- tion Acts.

The Russell ministry further proved its devotion to the cause of the people by completing a series of humane laws designed to protect the victims of industry. In 1842, Lord Ashley £m^^.**' supplemented his Factory Bill of 1833 with a second ^*^* bill designed to regulate the labor of children and

women in mines and collieries. A parliamentary investigation had revealed a startling state of affairs. The slave plantations in

566 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PABTIB8 [vicrotu

the West Indies in their palmiest days were charged with nothing more degrading or bratalizing. The Lords modified the bill some- what; but the main features were secured, making it no longer lawful to employ women and children under ground, or to keep children between ten and thirteen at work for more than three days a week. In 1844, the working time of children was reduced to SIX and a half hours a day, in order to give time for attending school. In 1847, the work of those under eighteen was reduced from twelve to ten hours a day and to eight on Saturdays.

It was the glory of Russell's free trade ministry to devise and cany out the first great World's Fair. A huge bnilding of glass and iron, designed by Joseph Paxton and known as the piScS^im. Crystal Palace, was raised in Hyde Park, and here the nations of Europe were invited to pat on exhibition in friendly rivalry the best results of their attainments in arts and manufactures. Prince Albert acted as President of the exposition and found in the furthering of such a scheme, full scope for the exercise of that broad and liberal sympathy which was so charac- teristic of the man. The exposition was a success as it deserved to be ; the more backward nations of Europe were brought face to face with the civilization of their more advanced neighbors and received a new stimulus in all the arts of life.

Its great world's fair, was destined to be the last triumph of the Russell ministry. The end, however, came not because Eng- lishmen were weary of the liberal Whigs, as the sequel proved, but because the liberal leaders could not live together without quarrel* ing. After a brief trial of the Conservatives under Derby and Disraeli, the queen turned to Aberdeen, who after Peel's death in 1850, had succeeded to somewhat of his influence over the liberal Tories. The Peelites alone, however, were hardly strong enough to conduct the administration, and Aberdeen turned to the Whigs for assistance. The result was a coalition ministry, in which Gladstone became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord John Rus- sell Foreign Secretary, and Palmerston Home Secretary. The new ministry was particularly happy in the man who had undertaken the organization of the finances of the government. He had a remarkable power of imparting something of his own virility to

1862-1855] THP OBIICBAK WAB 567

the most indifferent of subjects. Under his wizard-like touch, columns of figures glowed with interest; the darkest corners of his oflQce were compelled to disclose their mysteries, and minM^^^ the dullest of his colleagues, to grasp the financial December 1859 Problems which confronted the state. Yet there was tf^anuary nothing novel or startling in the policy which he proposed ; it was simply the traditional policy already adopted by Peel, — to continue the reduction of duties and retain the income tax until the increase of trade should restore the income of the treasury. In its treatment of foreign affairs, the new ministry was not so happy and soon managed to embroil the nation in a costly and profitless war, which added much to the glory of English arms but little to the credit of English diplomacy.

Czar Nicholas had never given up his early scheme of securing *Hhe key to the Rassian house,'' and now that his friend, Lord Aberdeen, had become Prime Minister, he seemed to Crimean think that the time had come for a movement against the Ottoman Empire. "The sick man," he said, **is in extremities; the time has come for a clear understanding between England and Russia." The Czar, however, had not calculated upon the influence of the new French emperor, who had an ambition of his own to fulfill in making the Bonaparte throne again a power in Europe, and had seized upon a qaarrel between the Greek and Latin monks over the guardianship of the Holy Places in Palestine as a pretext for intervention in Turkey. For two years the diplomatists quarreled over the matter; the Emperor of the French and the Czar each claimed to be the nat- ural protector of the Christian subjects of the Porte and each refused to allow the other to interfere.

The English ministry was divided, and while the ministers quarreled, Russia determined to act and by taking forcible pos- session of the Turkish states on the Danube, secure a

Beginning cf . m .t i i , m .i m

the War, guarantee for the better government of the fourteen million Christian subjects of the Sultan. Such high- handed action of course meant war; but Nicholas believed that the Turk could make little resistance, England would not inter-

568 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [vicrwu

fere, and the French emperor would not dare to expose his brand new throne to the hazards of a foreign war. He did not appre- ciate, however, the deep-seated fear of Russia which was the one tenet common to all the political creeds of the west. The adTance to the Danube at once roused Austria and Prussia, who were not pleased at the extension of the Sussian boundary in their direc- tion. Nicholas had the wisdom to withdraw before he came to open rupture with his near neighbors, but elsewhere Bussians and Turks were already fighting. A Turkish fleet had been destroyed at Sinope, and Nicholas had secured the Black Sea. A Russian army had entered Bulgaria and the Czar's soldiers were swarming about the border fortresses of the Sultan. As the Czar had fore- seen, the French emperor was afraid to act alone ; but the Aber- deen ministry could not hold back while the Ottoman empire was overwhelmed before their eyes, and in spite of himself Aber- deen was forced into a war for which neither he nor the English were prepared.

On March 27, 1854, England and France declared war, and

late in the summer their armaments entered the Black Sea, to

unite with the Turks and begin a combined attack

The Crimean n, ^ , ,-n» • % . ,^ •. .i

War, 1854, upon Sebastopol, Russia's great southern fortress in the Crimean peninsula. From the first, the conduct of the siege was marked by divided councils, continued blundering, and stupid inefficiency on the part of the allied commanders, but by the most heroic endurance and brilliant daring on the part of the troops. The winter of 1854 found the allies without tents, with- out hospital supplies, without even suitable food. They had been seriously crippled, also, by the hard but aimless fighting of the autumn which had given the names of Balaclava and Inkerman to English war history. Something was done by the heroic Florence Nightingale in restoring order in the plague smitten hospitals; still the sick and the wounded perished by thousands. In Eng- PaimcTi^ton ^*'^^> ^^® sufferings of the soldiers, which as usual were 3n7iJ>£r""* charged to the inefficiency of the ministry, roused an Feb. 5, 1*55. outburst of indignation ; Aberdeen was forced to resign, and Palmerston, the Uome Secretary, was advanced to the first place in the government.

8S5] SEOOKD TEAR OF THB WAB 569

Palmerston, who had been virtnally shelved as Home Secre- ary, now found full scope for his magnificent energy, and soon

infnsed order and efficiency into all the branches of ser?- f the war, ice connected with the war. The allies plucked up

new heart ; the death of Nicholas in March and the .ccession of Alexander II. still further encouraged the hope of a peedy issue of the struggle. Neither side, however, was willing o make the necessary concessions, and with the opening of the eason the fighting before Sebastopol was renewed. The affairs of he allies were now in very different stead from what they had »een in the autumn. The efficiency of the British army had been preatly increased. The French poured in reinforcements, and (ardinia, who had joined the alliance in January, also sent her

contingent, a small but efficient army of 15,000 men. ttM aiiianee. In June the allies began the series of direct assaults

which after varying success, resulted at last on Sept. 8 Q the storming of the Malakoff and the Little Redan by the IVench under Marshal McMahon ; the English succeeded in enter- ng the Great Redan but failed to hold it. The capture of the lalakoff forced the Russians to retire. In the night following, lortchakoff, the commander, blew up the works which still emained in his hands, sunk his ships, and retired to the north ide of the harbor, destroying his bridge of boats behind him.

The fall of Sebastopol virtually ended the war. All parties rere eager to end a war which right thinking men generally

regarded as the result of blundering diplomacy and, *anB, March hence, unnecessary. When, therefore, on the 25th of

February, the representatives of the powers met in con- fess at Paris, no serious obstacle lay in the way of a settlement, lotwithstanding the many interests at stake, and in a month^s ime their work was done. Sebastopol was restored to Russia but lOt to be again fortified. The Danube was declared free, and the Hack Sea thrown open to the merchantmen of all nations, but no rarship of Russia or Turkey or any other power might enter its raters. The Danubian principalities, Moldavia, Wallachia, and iervia, were placed under the protection of the powers. The owers, further^ exacted a promise from the Sultan to allow his

570 DISSOLUTIOK OF THE OLD PABTIEB. [vicioHi

Christian subjects to enjoy priyileges similar to those of his Mohammedan subjects. The congress also took advantage of the occasion to agree to abandon privateering and to acknowledge the right of a neutral flag to protect all goods except munitions of war.

The next year saw England involved in petty wars with Persia and China, but both were soon forgotten in the face of far more

serious complications in India, where durine the last Muuny, twenty years western civilization had been making

startling inroads. The brilliant Dalhousie, who had ruled India from 1848 to 1856, had not only conquered the Sikhs of the Punjab and in 1849 formally annexed their territories, but he had also, in 1852, fought out the second Burmese war to a successful issue and annexed Lower Burmah. He had, moreover, formally adopted the policy of annexing the protected states whenever the extinction of the direct line of a ruling house gave him the opportunity, refusing longer to recognize the Hindu cus- tom of adoption. In this way he had seized and annexed three of the states of the once great Mahratta confederation, Sattara in 1849, and Nagpore and Jhansi in 1853. Poonah, another of the Mahratta states, had made trouble in 1817, and had already been annexed, and the last of the Peishwas had been established at Bithoor as a regular pensioner of the East India Company. In 1853 the Peishwa died, and his adopted son, the infamous Nana Sahib, claimed the patronage of the company as heir by Hindu law. Dalhousie, however, had felt no obligation to continue the pension longer and left Nana without his portion. In 1856 Dalhousie had abolished the outrageous despotism which the kings of Oudh had carried on since 1819; but in annexing their vast territories, he managed to antagonize the wealthy landed aristocracy of the kingdom.

Not less radical had been Dalhousie's management of the domestic relations of his government ; the great missionary soci- eties had been encouraged to multiply their activities; the railroad and the telegraph had been introduced and rapidly extended; the Ganges Canal had been completed; and the Indian civil service had been thrown open to all British subjects, regardless of color

1857] INDIAN MUTIKT 671

or religion. These measures were commendable ; but the ener- getic governor had not accounted sufficiently for the immobility of the oriental mind, and the rapidity with which his innovations had succeeded one another, had roused among the natives a feeling of uncertainiy and resentment. The masses were deeply attached to the old order both by interest and by sentiment, and saw with no kindly feeling the progress of a revolution which threatened to overthrow the system which they had received from their fathers. Exaggerated accounts, also, of the mismanagement of the Crimean War began to reach India, and were eagerly seized upon by the disaffected elements, still further exaggerated, and industriously circulated as evidence of the declining prestige of England and the approaching downfall of British rule.

In the spring of 1857, mutinous outbreaks of the Sepoys, the native Indian troops, became general. In a short time all the middle and upper Ganges was in uproar. Delhi, Oii^eafc<?f which was the residence of the aged descendant of the Grand Mogul, became the center of the revolt in the north. The population of the newly annexed kingdom of Oudh rose in the name of their king, who was still a prisoner at Calcutta, and flocked to the siege of Lucknow, where Sir Henry Lawrence had withdrawn the resident garrison, consisting of a single regi- ment, into the Residency buildings in hope of holding out until relieved. At Cawnpore Nana Sahib placed himself at the head of the mutineers and also began the siege of the resident garrison. Everywhere the Sepoys inaugurated the rising by murdering the English officers and their families. At Delhi there was no foreign garrison, and the Sepoys had little trouble in overpowering the resident officers and their servants. At Cawnpore the garrison capitulated only to be massacred, but by some freak of pity or policy, some one hundred and thirty of the women and children were saved by order of Nana.

Fortunately for the English, the presidencies of the Lower Ganges were not affected. The Ghurkas of Nepal and the Sikhs of the Punjab also remained faithful, while the rulers of Gwalior and Indore refused to join their mutinous troops. The new gov- ernor-general. Lord Canning, son of the former minister, acted

572 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [vicioha

promplly and yigorously. By enlisting Sikhs and mnstering the resident garrisons of the Punjab, he was able to dispatch an army from the northwest under John Nicholson against L^fMqfthe Delhi. The siege, however, lasted from May to Septem- ber; and the city finally had to be carried by assault. In the meanwhile, Henry Havelock, a soldier of the Gromwellian type, was fighting his way from Lower Bengal to Gawnpore. His entire force amounted only to 1,500 men. Between the 7th and 16th of July in spite of the fierce heat, he marched one hundred and twenty-six miles and fought four engagements in the desper- ate hope of rescuing Nana's victims. But on news of Havelock^s approach two Sepoys with arms bared to the elbow and drawn swords entered the prison where the women and children who had been spared from the former massacre were crowded cawnpore, together. When the next day Havelock's men entered the place the victims were gone, but the blood-plashe<] wainscoting and the reeking floors told of the pitiful struggle. Tlie bodies were found in a well near by, where they had been thrown, the dead and the still living. At the awful sight hard visaged men broke down. They had fought over those terrible hundred and twenty-six miles in the intense heat of an Indian summer, to see this.

Colonel Neill remained to punish those who were responsible for the awful crime, while Havelock, with fresh troops that raised his column to 3,000 men, pressed on to Lucknow, ^iMc^tww, wb^r® ^^^ Y\it\Q garrison of 1,000 men from behind the walls of the Besidency were standing off the whole male population of Oudh. The gallant Lawrence had been mortally wounded on June 1, and had committed the defense to General Inglis, with a dying injunction never to surrender. Havelock *8 progress in the face of the overwhelming odds against him was necessarily slow, and it was not until September 25 that he at last succeeded in fighting his way through the streets of the city and reaching the Residency, where the British flag still floated. His little band was too feeble to raise the siege, but he brought new strength and assurance to the besieged, and enabled them to keep up the defense. The siege was not raised until November 17,

1858-1868] END OF EAST INDIiC COMPANY 573

when Sir Colin Campbell with the reinforcements which had been sent from England, at last reached the city. The brave Havelock died on the 24th.

Campbell was comi)elled to withdraw with the garrison to Cawnpore, before which he fought a successful battle on Decem- ber 6. In the spring he again marched upon Lucknow [JJ^^J^ and carrying the city by storm, followed the retreating insurgents to Bareilly, and there in May 1858 delivered a final, crushing blow. While Campbell was thus stamping out the war in Oudh, Sir Hugh Rose had advanced from the Bombay Presidency against the Mahrattas, and on June 16 fought the last battle of the war before Gwalior. Thus ended this ferocious struggle between civilization and barbarism, in which the civilized European proved that he could be quite as merciless if not as treacherous, as his cruel enemy, marring his victories by ruthless massacres, blowing prominent prisoners to pieces at the cannon's month and hanging meaner folk by the hundred.

Public sentiment at home was satisfied that the time had come for the abolition of the East India Company, and in 1858 the transient Derby ministry formally dissolved it and Ea>d India transferred its political authority directly to the crown, which was to act through a Secretary of State for India. The general administration was placed in the hands of a viceroy, although each province still retained its separate local government. The company's navy was abolished, but its army was merged in the army of the empire. Lord Canning, the last governor-general of the company, became the first Viceroy of India, and remained in office until 1862. The queen, further, in order to quiet the country and allay the suspicions of the neighboring princes, formally disclaimed by proclamation any desire to seek new accessions of territory, and promised to maintain all existing trea- ties, to admit qualified Indians to office, to pardon all rebels who had not been connected with the massacres, to grant full religious toleration and to respect the ancient customs of her subjects.

The English government, in the meanwhile, had not forgotten the quarrel with China, althongh operations for the moment had been delayed by the more serious struggle in India. In the sum-

574 DIS80LimOK*OF THB OLD PASTIES [vicioui

mer of 1858 Canton was bombarded, the Takn forts, which held the approach to Pekin, were seized, and the Chinese forced to consent to the Treaty of Tientsin by which they opened Chinese War, a number of new ports to the English traders and allowed a British ambassador to take up his residence at Pekin. In 1859 the war was again renewed ; France, also, joined with England, and in 1860 they compelled the Chinese to confirm the recent treaty and pay a war indemnity of £4,000,000.

Before the China war had been well under way, the great war premier had temporarily come to grief at home. Curiously enough, the reason for dissatisfaction was not that he Q^r'ms, ^^® ^^^ ^^^^ ^° dealing with foreign powers, but that he was not bold enough. Orsini, an Italian refugee, had taken advantage of the safe harborage which London afforded him, to hatch a plot for the assassination of the emperor of the French. The bomb had missed the emperor; but it killed or wounded some one hundred and fifty bystanders. Public opinion in France was greatly wrought up over the dastardly act, and the emperor, reasonably enough, demanded such a change in the laws of England as should make similar plots impossible in the future. Under ordinary circumstances the sympathies of the English people would probably have supported a minister who proposed to punish such an inexcusable crime as Orsini 's, but the furious attack of the French press and the vainglorious boasting of some French colonels roused the bitterest feelings in England, and when Palmerston brought in a "Conspiracy to Murder Bill,*' which made such a crime a penal offense whether committed in England or out of England, the opposition took advantage of the popular clamor to denounce what they stigmatized as the cringing policy of the minister. His bill was beaten and he was forced to resign. The logical outcome of the resignation of Palmerston was a return to a conservative administration, and the queen recalled Derby and Disraeli. While the war scare lasted the oudminMry, now ministry had some showing of strength in the tre- mendous enthusiasm with which the whole nation took to drilling and organizing volunteer companies, — a patriotic bat harmless activity, in which the ministers shrewdly encouraged the

1858-1865J PALKEBSTON 575

people. The ministry, however, never had the confidence of the Commons sufficient to command a majority, and although Disraeli sought to gain favor with the Liberals by bringing in a bill which proposed to extend the £10 household franchise of the boroughs to the counties, his effort to **educate his party" as he called it, was not taken seriously. His proposal to give the franchise to university graduates, physicians, and lawyers, regardless of prop- erty qualifications, and to anyone who could show a balance of £60 in a savings bank, was derided as a proposal to create ''fancy franchises." The bill was lost on the second reading. An appeal was then made to the country and a new parliament sum- moned, but the very first division proved that the ministry was with- out the necessary majority and Derby and his colleagues resigned. The French war scare had now blown over, and the sober second thought of the people once more turned to the great leader

who had brought them out of the Crimean War, and Kctmdminis- carried them through the trying period of the Mutiny.

Palmerston accordingly returned, to remain in power until his death in 1865. These years were years of great anxiety; there were stirring times abroad, and although after the Chinese War, England remained at peace with the world, her foreign rela- tions called for the exercise of a clear head and a steady hand.

The year 1859 saw the interference of Napoleon III. in Italy, the overthrow of the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino, and the

rapid advance of Italy to national unity under the lead sertircd, of the king of Sardinia and his able minister, Cavour.

The year 1801 saw this movement finiilly consummated when an Italian parliament formally declared Victor Emmanuel King of Italy.

The same year saw the outbreak of the American Civil War. England was deeply interested from the first. The blockading of TtuAmeriean^^^ Southern ports cut off her cotton mills from their cgjtt^if'ar, supply of raw cotton and forced them to shut down; the^ETMU^ wages wore stopped; thousands of operatives were pe^ipte. thrown out of work and their families brought to the

verge of starvation. All related business also suffered; and nothing but the generous gifts of private charity saved the

576 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [Yuxom

great Lancashire mill district from distress as serious as that caused in Ireland by the potato famine. The relations of the two governments remained, therefore, under serious tension during the whole course of the war. A noisy party who cared little for other than English interests, would have Palmerston actlTely interfere in order to separate the warring sections, but the starv- ing operatives, although they believed that it would be a simple matter to send a British fleet to America, break the blockade and secure cotton and work in abundance, saw more clearly the real issue at stake, and determined that they would go without work and suffer, rather than be relieved by supporting the cause of slavery.

The Palmerston ministry affected to respect the laws prescribed by civilized nations in such cases; but hastened to recognize the

Confederate States as bellii?erents at the first oppor- Paimcrsum tunitv. It Certainly was not a friendly act, and

aroused great bitterness in the North. In 1861 the relations of the two governments were strained almost to the point of war as a result of the action of Captain Wilkes, a United States naval officer, whose name had been heretofore associated with a peaceful and all but forgotten exploring expedition in the south- ern Pacific. Wilkes had overhauled the British steamer, Trent, and taken from her Mason and Slidell, two Confederate envoys who had been sent by the Confederate government to England. The overzeal of Captain Wilkes undoubtedly put the Federal gov- ernment in the wrong, and Palmerston promptly seized the oppor- tunity to assert the majesty of the British fiag, poured troops into Canada and made a great bluster of his determination to have reparation or figlit. Lincoln and Seward did the only thing to be done under the circumstances; they restored the arrested envoys and offered the apologies prescribed by the convention of nations under such cases. If, however, the British ministers were inclined

to an ostentatious punctiliousness in observing the laws cuixtm/Hctr of nations in dealing with the Federal government,

they were not so careful in dealing with the Confeder- ate cruisers which from time to time were fitted out in English ports for the purpose of preying upon Northern commerce- The

1872] DEATH OF PALMERSTOK 577

United States at the time could not take action, but when the war was 07er the matter was taken up and pushed to a final set- tlement in the Geneva award of 1872 ; the Southern sympathies of Palmorston's ministry cost the British government the sum of £3,000,000.

Before the American war had closed, another war cloud had begun to rise in Germany, where Austria and Prussia were enter- Enaiandand ^^S ^pou the last stage of their long quarrel over the Pn-oenMn hegemony of German Europe. Palmerston showed unity. little appreciation of the real merit of the struggle, and

in the first stages which fell within his ministry, was inclined to interfere. In this case, however, as in the almost contemporary troubles in Poland, in which Palmerston also thought himself called upon to meddle, the officious minister received a humilia- ting snub, and after blustering somewhat was compelled to sit still and witness the making of German states out of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

On October 18, 1865, Palmerston died at his post, at the ripe age of eighty-one. In spite of his many faults, his fondness for

"jingo" methods, his frequent rashness in speecii and Palmerston, action, his over-confidence and frequent inclination to

needless meddling in the quarrels of others, he is yet the great figure of the middle years of Victoria's reign. No other minister since the death of William Pitt had so long enjoyed the confidence of the English nation.

CHAPTER IX

THE RISE OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY. GLADSTONE AND THE

SECOND EKA OF REFORM

VICTORIA. 1965-1901

The death of Palmerston marks the beginning of a new era in English politics. The extensive introduction of the railroad and the steamboat, the penny post and the electric telegraph, the vast increase in the number and quality of books, the multiplication and cheapening of newspapers, the enlargement of existing

578 THE SBCOKD BBA OF REFORM [vioiwu

ideals of edncation and the adoption of more rational methodfl, the granting of self-goyernment to the colonies, and the growth

of a sense of unity and mntoal interest among the ub^(2&^^ widely extended members of the empire, bad bred new

conditions and brought in a whirl of new ideas. In this vigorous atmosphere had developed a new liberalism, founded upon confidence in the democracy and faith in the British Empire; a liberalism which, while it did not shrink from aasuming tho responsibility of empire, insisted that in administering the vast trust the government treat all with honesty and equal faimese, and that in order to guarantee an administration which should be fair to all, the government be so constituted as to represent all.

The new liberalism had found a natural spokesman in Glad- stone. He possessed a peculiarly organized mind, wonderfully

gifted by nature and enlarged by studies in many ^li^hesnmnc^ fields. He was deeply sympathetic, upright, just, inca- Libcrais, P^ble of simulation, and uncompromising in his hatred

of all sham or charlatanry. During his long and suc- cessful career as administrator of the exchequer, he had been steadily progressing as a liberal leader. He had not hesitated, as now conditions offered the opportunity, in presenting his annnal budget, to apply the free trade principle which since Peel's day had been an accepted tenet of the Whig party. He had also recognized the justice of the demand of the unrepresented classes for a more generous recognition in parliament, but while men like Disraeli and Eussell were raising the cry of reform largely for political effect, he had been quietly probing existing evils and had come at last to the conviction that further parliamentary reform was not only inevitable but that it was the only sure and perma- nent means of betterment ; and that it was to be regarded not as so much political treacle for catching voters, but as a great and holy cause to be advanced at the cost of place or preferment, if need be.

On the death of Palmerston little change was made in the min- istry. His war secretary. Lord John Russell, whose name had long been identified with the triumphs of the Whig party, was advanced to tho vacant premiership, but Gladstone was now the controlling

1866] THE RUSSELL MINISTRY 579

inflnence in the cabinet. It was ominons for the continued har- mony of the Whig party. Bussell himself had for ten years been committed to moderate parliamentary reform, and it ^jg^«» was not difficult for Gladstone to persuade his chief bIu^mS^ to consent to reopen the dangerous issue. The meas- ure which was presented, however, was too moderate to satisfy the radicals, while the conservative Whigs of the Palmers- ton following promptly took alarm and joined the opposition. Bussell resigned, and Derby and Disraeli came back to office. Derby, however, was now well along in years, and the real man- agement of the party fell largely to Disraeli. In February, 1868, Derby retired altogether.

The Conservatives had come into power as the result of the opposition to Gladstone's reform bill ; but they in their turn were forced to face the dangerous problem and devise some measure which, while satisfying tlie popular demand, might yet avoid aiousing the fears of the Conservatives who had no desire to increase the influence of the democracy in the House. The measure which finally appeared was a curiously complex scheme, devised with characteristic cunning to fool the people Reform Biu and quiet the Conservatives. It proposed to extend the vote to a large class of the workingmen, but by a complicated scheme of double voting for the ** higher classes," it proposed really to swamp the influence of the workingmen at the polls by the correspondingly increased influence of the wealthier classes. Not satisfied with this, Disraeli virtually proposed, also, to put into the hands of the wealthier classes in each parish the power to admit to the franchise as they saw fit. The House felt the urgency of immediate action, and refused to support Glad- stone in his proposal to make a ministerial issue of the bill. Disraeli himself had no idea of pushing his elaborate scheme \a> the alternative of victory or resignation, and declared himself very willing to receive suggestions or amendments from the House, a hint which the House was not slow to avail itself of, leaving the bill in its final form really more radical than the one which had turned out the Russell ministry in 1866.

The amended bill, shorn of its ''safeguards," received the

580 THE 8E00KD ERA OF BEFORH [tictoku

royal assent August 15, 18G7. The next year, by other similar acts the principle of the bill was also applied to Scotland and Ire- land. As in the acts of 1832, real property was still

The ''Second _. ^- . . _^_ . ,.

«<;/orw^cte," regarded as the basis of the franchise; a man to vote must either own real property or rent real property. In application, however, the principle was greatly extended. In boroughs, iti England and Scotland, any householder whose house was of sufficient value to be assessed for the local poor-rates could vote; in Ireland, where a lower assessment prevailed, the property must pay a poor-tax upon an assessed valuation of at least £4. In boroughs, in the three kingdoms, all male lodgers who could show a residence of one year and who paid at least £10 a year for unfurnished lodgings, could vote. In the counties the franchise was extended to all who owned land of an annual value of £5; but tenants in order to vote, in England or Ireland, must occupy land of at least £12 a year rental value; in Scotland, of at least £14 a year. Scotland, also, was allowed seven additional members, raising its representation in the House to sixty. Ireland was left as fixed by the acts of 1832. A successful attempt, also, was made to readjust the representation in parliament in accordance with the growth of population. Eleven boroughs were disfran- chised; thirty-five of less than 10,000 inhabitants lost one member each; the vacant seats were divided between London and the great northern shires. The new principle of minority representa- tion was also recognized; wherever three members were to be returned, the voter was allowed to vote for two only. The "Second Reform Acts," as they are called, mark an important stage in the progress of Great Britain toward democracy. In the boroughs, virtually any man who could earn a living was entitled to vote; while in the counties, the farm laborer was almost the only man loft without the franchise.

While press and public were eagerly watching the first stages of the contest for parliamentary reform, a matter of hardly less moment to the future of the empire had quietly pushed its way through parliament and had become a law almost unnoticed. This measure was the now famous *' British American Colonies Confederation Act," which empowered the British Colonies of

1807, 1868] OOLOKIAL OOKFEDERATIOK 681

North America to form themselves into a federation to be known as the *' Dominion of Canada." By this act, in November, the two Ganadas which had been united in 1840, were jLmerSlan^^ organized with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick under 9^i^^lJ^^^ a federal government with full powers for the regula- '^^ml^^^^ tion of "Currency, Customs, Excise, and Revenue gen- erally; for the adoption of a uniform postal system; and for the management and maintenance of public works and properties of the Dominion ; for the adoption of a plan of military organization and defense; for the introduction of uniform laws respecting the naturalization of aliens and the assimilation, of criminal law." Not of least importance among the duties imposed by the act upon the Dominion Parliament was the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. Later were added Manitoba and Brit- ish Columbia with the Northwest Territory, which extended the jurisdiction of the Dominion Government to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.

The foreign relations of the Derby-Disraeli ministry were quiet enough. Austria was expelled from Germany by Prussia and from Italy by Victor Emmanuel ; but England was no ianiMir erf longer concerned in the misfortunes of her ancient ally. In the year 1868, an expedition numbering 12,000 troops from the Indian army was sent under General Napier to compel Theodore, an Abyssinian king, to release some British subjects whom he had imprisoned. The prisoners were released and the column retired as quickly as possible. King Theodore, a brave and reckless barbarian, slew himself in chagrin at being humiliated before his people.

A series of outbreaks in Ireland, in the meanwhile, had once more forced the Irish problem into the foreground. Since the ^^ potato famine and the breaking up of the Young Ire- irtmhits, land Party, the land had been comparatively quiet. The thousands of Irishmen, however, who had come to America had not forgotten the kindred whom they had left behind. In 1863 a secret society was organized with a member- ship both in Ireland and the United States, called the "Irish Republicau Brotherhood," but better known by the more popular

582 THE 8EC0KD EBA OF BBFOBM [vkcioBi

name of "Fenians." The purpose of the order was revolution- ary; and in 1865, when Russell was Prime Minister, their plans were divulged and several arrests were made. 0 ^Donovan Rossa, an editor of the *' Irish People," was sentenced to a life imprison- ment. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended in Ireland and many Irish leaders fled to America. Here they laid plans for an invasion of Canada in the hope of embroiling Great Britain and the United States in a quarrel on their account. The expedi- tion, however, was poorly managed and easily discouraged by the determined front of the local militia; while the disavowal of the United States Government took from the leaders their only possible hope of success. Other revolts no more successful fol- lowed in Ireland. The next year, 1867, an attempt was made to rescue several Fenian prisoners from Clerkenwell by blowing out the walls of the prison. The attempt was unsuccessful, but many innocent persons were killed or injured by the explosion, and London was thoroughly frightened.

The Liberal leaders fully believed that they could quiet Ire- land only by removing the causes of grievance, the chief of which

ThenrH *^ ^^® ^^^^ ^®^® ^^® enforced support of the Protestant minutry^ Episcopal Church of Ireland by the Irish peasantry.

enr

1868. and the system of rack rents, by which the tenantry

were left to the mercy of the landlords. Disraeli stoutly resisted every proposition to disestablish the Irish Protestant Church, and after an unsuccessful appeal to the new constituencies that had been created by his recent reform bills, in December 1868 he resigned, and Gladstone became Prime Minister. Gladstone's majority -enabled him at once to carry out his proposed plan of disestablishment; the church courts were abolished and the Irish bishops were deprived of their seats in the House of Lords; the churches, cathedrals, parsonages, and all private oidowments which had been given to the Irish Episcopal Church since 1660, were left in its hands, but it became henceforth a free church; the clergy, also, were compensated for their life interests. The anomaly of the Irish Episcopal establishment was generally con- ceded, and the great body of English Protestants as well as Cath- olics recognized the wisdom and justice of the Act of Disestab-

1808] IRISH DISESTABLISHMENT 583

lishment. A far more serious problem, howeyer, confronted Gladstone in the Irish land question. In Ireland, as in England,

rents were fixed by free competition. In Ireland, how- DiMstabiuh- ever, the competition among landlords for tenants was ' largely theoretical, while the competition among tenants for land was a grim fact. Hence in Ireland it was qnite impos- sible for the tenant to meet his landlord on equal terms. The landlord, therefore, generally made what terms he chose with his would-be tenant, compelling him, ordinarily, to make all improve- ments, eyen to the erection of buildings, and subjecting him to eviction on six months' notice. If the tenant should prove to be thrifty and enterprising and should seek to improve his land, the temptation was strong for the landlord to exact in increased rents all that the improvements were worth, or, since the improvements belonged to the landlord, to evict upon the slightest pretext, or upon no pretext at all, in order to get the full advantage of his improved estates.

In 1870 Gladstone bravely took in hand the knotty Irish land question. He proposed to recognize the claim of an outgoing

tenant to receive some compensation for improvements;

The "Irish r y

LandAcr tenants, also, who were evicted for any causa other than nonpayment of rent, were to be entitled to dam- ages. He further proposed, by lending public money to those who wished to buy their farms to put it into the hands of Irish tenants to escape permanently from the tyranny of the landlord. Gladstone had great confidence in the **Land Act" and fully believed that he had settled the Irish land question. But he had not yet fathomed the depths of the greed of the landlord. The landlord simply raised the rent of the undesirable tenant until it passed beyond his ability to pay, and then turned him out upon the charge of nonpayment, when, by the condition of the Land Act, the tenant forfeited all interest in his improvements. The purchase clause of the act likewise proved to be of little value, since landlords were never willing to sell.

The same year saw the inauguration by the Liberal ministry of another reform which was destined to be more fruitful in results. It was felt that the simple extension of the franchise

584 THE SECOND EBA OF BEFOBM [yicrosi

was not BuflScient; but that it onght to be followed by some consistent and far-reaching plan for public education. William

E. Forster, the vice-president of the council, took up ary EducaUiunihe matter and succeeded in pushing through the

•'Elementary Education Act," by which any district might elect its own school board and levy a local rate to support its school ; it might also compel the attendance of the childreuv Teachers were to be allowed to read and explain the Bible; but the time for such an exercise must be fixed and regular, and par- ents who wished might keep their children away. In no instance, however, was the teaching of the catechism or the creed of any particular church to be allowed. The bill was bitterly opposed by some Dissenters, but on the whole was well received and marks a most important advance in English public school education.

In 1J71 Cardwell, Gladstone's war minister, presented the first of a series of important army reforms, one of which proposed

to abolish the old absurd system of purchasing army re/oJ?i«. commissions. The army infiuence, naturally conserv-

^tive in such a matter, made a desperate fight, and so obstructed ihe bill that the ministry was obliged to gain its object by advising the queen to cancel the royal warrant by which the purchase of commissions had been authorized. An **Army Enlistment Aci" shortened the term of service from twenty-one years to six years with the regiment and six years in the reserve. Direct control over the militia and volunteers, which, since the reign of Mary, had been vested in the lords-lieutenant of the counties, was now placed in the hands of the crown and was fol- lowed by a reorganization of the army upon a territorial basis. The regiments were named from their counties; the militia and volunteers of the county became battalions of the county regiment. Tlie commander-in-chief of the army was placed directly under the control of the war oflBce.

In 1872 the government attempted to prevent bribery at elec- tion by the "Ballot Act," which by making the voting for mem- bers of parliament secret, prevented the buyer of votes from krowing whether the voter had fulfilled his part of the agree-

1871-1878] THE JUDICATURB ACT 685

ment or not. In 1873, Lord Selboume, the Chancellor, brought forward the "Judicature Act," which merged the old courts of The '^BdUot Common Pleas, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Chan- ^<^" eery, into one Supreme Court of Judicature, but still

subject to the ultimate appellate authority of the House of Lords. The result has been neatly to cheapen and sim- tureAeu*' plify the proccsscs of law, by removing the old lines which centuries of custom had drawn between the ancient courts.

While the Gladstone ministry was thus in almost bewildering rapidity bringing forward reforms at home, most important events were crowding upon each other on the continent. The Franco- Prussian War had broken out in 1870, and before the march of the German legions the second French empire had melted away. The overthrow of Napoleon and the establishment of the present French Republic, however, were not the most significant results of the war. All Germany had rallied to the support of King Wil- liam of Prussia; an intense national enthusiasm had taken pos- session of all classes, and would be satisfied only by the union of all the German states in a great German federal state with the king of Prussia as its hereditary sovereign. The king of Italy was also quick to seize the opportunity offered by the troubles of France. He moved upon Rome, and putting an end to the tem- poral power of the pope, made the ancient city, at last, the capital of a united Italy. These two events, the unification of Germany and the unification of Italy, mark the culmination of the two most significant movements in continental history since the close of the first Napoleonic era.

In its attitude toward these foreign struggles, the Gladstone ministry, in accordance with modern Liberal ideas, had attempted to carry out a high-minded and unselfish policy. Granville, the Foreign Secretary, insisted upon the neutrality of Belgium; but when Russia announcd her determination to repudiate the pledges which she had made at Paris in 185G, with France and Germany at war, there was nothing left for England but to submit and quietly strike out of the treaty the clauses which Russia had declared invalid. The same ministry saw also the long ponding

686 THE SECOND ERA OF &EPORM [vtoiaoi

dispute with the United States over the Alabama claims, settled by the Geneva award, June, 1872.

The first ministry of Gladstone had now run a remarkable career. He had taken up and carried to a successful issue about Thtfaxioftht ^^®^ reform which had thus far occupied the attention Swcminis- ^^ ^^® generation, and there was danger, apparently, try, 1874. that as the head of a reform ministry, he would soon be without a brief. Disraeli, with his inimitable power of phrase- making, had sneeringly alluded to the thorough way in which the ministry had cleared off the reform docket by referring to the ministers as they sat on the treasury bench before him, as *'a row uf extinct volcanoes." Tho country, moreover, was weary of reform. Many severely criticized Gladstone's foreign policy as weak and truckling. Many Dissenters, also, were not pleased with the Elementary Education Bill, and when in 1873, in order to find some neutral ground upon which all parties in Ireland might stand without quarreling, Gladstone proposed to establish a secular University at Dublin, in which neither theology, nor his- tory, nor philosophy, should be taught, the very elements which he sought to serve turned upon him and defeated the bill. Glad- stone at once resigned, and although the refusal of Disraeli to take office kept Gladstone in power a few months longer, when the Conservative gains in the election of 1874 left no further doubt as to the drift of public sentiment, Gladstone again resigned and Disraeli once more came into power.

The outbreak of new troubles between the Turks and their European subjects soon afforded the ministry a chance to show

what it could do in the way of protecting English ^'w'a/^>c[fAv^cn^^^®^®^^^ abroad. In 1875 the Christian population of rurA^?/i«77. Herzegovina rose against the Turks; the neighboring

provinces also were soon thrown into wild ferment. The Turks began to put down these uprisings with their custom- ary ferocity, and their cruelties, particularly those perpetrated in Bulgaria, once more stirred the resentment of Europe. The most natural thing under the circumstances would have been for the British ministry to give Russia a free hand in forcing the Turk to grant the reforms which the provinces in revolt demanded. But

18T7. 1878] 8AN 8TEFAN0 587

the ministers, still under the sway of the Gonseryative traditions of the pasty saw in such a course the inevitable o\ertbrow of the Turkish empire and a vast accession of power if not of actual ter- ritory for Eussia in southeastern Europe. Yet in the present state of public opinion it would not do to repeat the Crimean War and a second time protect Turkey against the demands of Bussia. The only hope, therefore, of a happy solution of the puzzling question was to secure the cooperation of all the powers in enforc- ing reforms upon Turkey. The attempt was made, but failed, owing partly to the stolid determination of the Turkish govern- ment not to yield, and partly to the refusal of England to agree to some definite aggressive action on the part of the powers. This was a blunder diplomatically, since it left the Bussian government to declare war upon Turkey on her own account, and precipitated the very issue which the Conservative ministry wished to avoid. In June, 1877, the Bussians crossed the Danube, and began the occupation of Bulgaria. The Turks made a brave stand at Plevna and from behind its vast earthworks held the Bussian army at bay until December, when their works were finally carried by assault and the Bussians poured through the passes of the Balkans. Constantinople was practically vnthout defenses and its occupa- tion by the Bussians seemed imminent. If Turkey were saved, action must be taken at once, and accordingly Disraeli, who had been raised to the peerage in 1876 as earl of Beaconsfield, dis- patched a powerful English fleet into the eastern Mediterranean, called out the reserves in England, and ordered Sepoy regiments from India to Malta. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Derby, who was not in sympathy with a course that promised war between England and Bussia, resigned, and Lord Salisbury was put in his place.

In the meanwhile, on March 3, 1878, Bussia and Turkey had already agreed upon a peace at San Stefano, the conspicuous feat- ure of which was the proposed formation of an inde- March 3, ' pendent Bulgaria out of the regions lying between the Danube and the upper Aegean. To *his Beaconsfield objected, because in the first place, such a state would cut Euro- pean Turkey in two, and, in the second place would virtually bring

688 THE SECOND ERA OP REFOBM [yictoiu

Bitssia to tlie Aegean, since from the first the new state must necessarily be devoted to Bnssian interests. He accordlDgly continued his preparations for war; the opposition protested, and Gladstone by his fiery appeals awoke the country. Yet Beaconsfield for once h^d his way; he forced Bussia to consent to submit the treaty of San Stefano to the approval or modification of a congress of the powers to be called at Berlin. The now famous congress met in June, 1878 ; Beaconsfield and of Berlin, Salisbury represented Great Britain. Before the meet- ing, however, Bussia and Great Britain had come to an understanding by which the proposed Bulgaria was to be broken up as follows: (1) Bulgaria between the Balkans and the Danube was to have autonomy but was to be tributary to Turkey; (2) Bulgaria south of the Balkans, Eastern Boumelia, was to be allowed administrative autonomy, but under a Christian Pasha; (3) Mon- tenegro, Servia, and Boumania were to be independent and to receive new accessions of territory; (4) Bussia was to be allowed to extend her frontiers to the month of the Danube and be given Kars and Batoum in Asia, though Batoum was not to be forti- fied ; (5) Turkey was to carry out reforms which for the future should secure her Christian subjects in Crete and Armenia. In return for this friendly interference and for the further guarantee of the protection of the Asiatic dominions of the Turk against Bussia, the Porte gave England control of the island of Cyprus, thus adding one more to the list of English milestones on the way to India up the Mediterranean. The Congress of Berlin did little more than ratify the terms of the amended Treaty of San Stefano; Beaconsfield returned highly satisfied with his work, having, as he declared, "secured peace with honor." In the main object of his policy he had succeeded; he had secured British interests in the east. But to this he had sacrificed the interests of the Christian populations, who still groaned under the tyranny of the Turk; he had made possible all the later atrocities in Armenia and Crete, and prepared the way for future war between Greece and Turkey. Yet it is fair to ask, if Russia were not to be allowed to take pos- session of Constantinople and herself expel the Turk from Europe, what more could have been accomplished?

1878] DBCUNB OF BBACONSFIELD'8 ikflubncb 689

The Beaconsfield ministry had now reached high-water mark. The noisy bluster of the '^Jingoes," who had supported the min- ister's high-handed dealing with Bassia, their boast- BeaeonSuUTB ful talk of the power of English armies or the prestige of the English navy, their vanntiug confidence -in the future of the British Empire and their cold-blooded assumption of the paramount importance of its interests to all considerations of justice or right in dealing with other nations, could not long prevent the conscience of the British people from getting a hear- ing, especially with such a mentor as Gladstone to rouse it to new activity. The studied ostentation with which Beaconsfield had conducted his administration, the fanfare of trumpets with v^hich each new achievement had been announced to the public, had for a time influenced a certain class of minds. But the interest of the people was now flagging; a wave of commercial depression swept over the country ; nor could the addition of the ostentatious ^^Empress of India'' to the simple but majestic titles which generations of Englishmen, heretofore, had thought good enough for their sovereigns, or the effort to establish English influence in Afghanistan, where an English army was sent to .force an envoy upon the reluctant Ameer, simply because he had seen fit to receive one from Russia, or an attempt to draw the South African States into a confederation after the Canadian pattern, or the annexation of the Transvaal, or a war with the Zulus, prevent the attention of the public from turning once more to the considera- tion of urgent needs at home. In the election of March 1880 Beaconsfield attempted to rally the Conservatives by appealing to their old time fear of radicalism, painting in lurid colors the mis- chief that would follow should the Radicals again come into power. But Gladstone in his magnificent Midlothian campaign, in which he exposed with telling effect the many vulnerable points of Beaconsfield's foreign policy, carried everything before him, and returned to office with a powerful Liberal majority. Beacons- field died the next year, leaving the leadership of his party to the marquis of Salisbury.

Gladstone was now stronger than when he had taken oflSce twelve years before. He had a clear majority of fifty votes over

590 THE SECOND BRA OF REFORM [vicioba

the Gonseryatiyes and Irish Home Balers combined. He secured the Radicals of his own party by giving positions to Bright,

Fawcett, and Dilke, while he made Joseph Chamberlain, HecwidminU' "the reformmg mayor of Birmmgham, ' President . ' of the Board of Trade. Dilke and Chamberlain were Badicals of the new school, who unlike the followers of the Man- chester school, believed in a vigorous interference on the part of the state, not only as a remedy in domestic evils, but also in colo- nial and foreign affairs. The ''extinct volcanoes," which had so aroused Disraeli's mirth in 1873, were soon in full eruption again.

The ''Burials Act" tore away almost the only remain- ' ing shred of the tissue of the legislation by which ancient bigotry had once sought to bind the limbs of nonconform- ity, allowing the nonconformists the use of churchyards for funeral purposes. By the "Employers' Liability Act," the employer was made responsible for the results of carelessness or negligence in subjecting workmen to unnecessary danger. By the "Ground Game Act," the crops of tenants were preserved from the inroads of such pests as the hares and rabbits that had been heretofore protected for the master's hunting. Ireland, also, where experience had revealed the weak points of the earlier Lib- eral legislation, early attracted the attention of the ministry, which in almost its first legislation attempted to secure a law that would allow a tenant who was evicted for nonpayment of rent to

recover "compensation for disturbance." The Lords Irish Land defeated this important provision, but the next year the

"Second Irish Land Act" was more successful. This

Act,'

.>

act formally recognized the co-proprietorship of the tenant in the land which he tilled, and allowed him to sell his interest to the highest bidder; it established a land court to fix rent by judicial action, the action to be revised every fifteen years; it further ga?e the tenant a right to apply to this court at any time.

These measures, acceptable as they would have been in 1870, did not satisfy the Irish leaders who wanted to abolish "landlord- ism" altogether. They had organized a "Land League," by which they proposed to gain their end through a system of terrorism, waylaying landlord or agent or constable, and leaving

188

l] THK LAN[> I.FAOn: 591

the dead body as a mute testimony of the danger of oil ending the League. A far more eflScient as well as less dangerous method The^Land ®' intimidation was devised in the *' boycott," so ^^eoove.'* called from the name of the first victim, Captain Boycott, the agent of Lord Eame. Side by side with the war against landlords, the old agitation for Home Bule was also revived, finding its champion in Charles Stewart Parnell, a man of ability and resolution, and without scruples in selecting methods. Home Rule, however, for the time was hopelessly confused in the public mind with Land Leaguism, and leaders like Parnell natu- rally fell under the disapproval which was aroused by the murders and outrages ascribed to the League. Forster, the Irish secre- tary, was goaded to desperation by the inability of the government to bring the perpetrators of the secret murders to justice, and in 1881 in spite of bitter opposition pushed through parliament his ''Protection for Life and Property Act," which empowered the government to arrest and imprison without trial persons *' reason- ably suspected." Parnell, Dillon, and some fifty more of the Irish leaders were arrested and thrown into Kilmainham jail. The Land League responded by issuing a manifesto which forbade tenants to pay rent altogether. The government replied by a direct attack upon the League itself as -'an illegal and criminal association."

Gladstone, apparently, now thought that his subordinate had gone too far, and in 1882 released Parnell and his fellow prisoners _ _ from Kilmainham jail: he had first, however, come to

ParhmiW' an understanding with them that they would support

dtn 1882* ./ X x

the government in its efforts to introduce liberal meas- ures and bring order out of the chaos. Forster resigned in dis- gust, and Lord Frederick Cavendish was appointed to succeed him. The new secretary had hardly arrived in Ireland before he with the permanent Under-secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, was set upon in Phoenix Park by representatives of a secret society called the "Invincibles," and stabbed to death. All thought of conciliation was abandoned. A ''Prevention of Crimes Act" authorized the government to examine witnesses secretly and to try suspected persons before a special jury. A "gag law" was

i»%

THE BEOOITD XBA OP BEFOBK

["

also passed by thn CommoDB for its own goverament, designed to check the obstructive tactics which Parnell had adopted in the Hoose and which, supported by the Irish vote, he had used to considerable- purpose.

While the ministers were thus heroically grappling with the Irish problem, they were compelled to face another series of no The Boa- '®^* perplexing problems connected with the wars that hSCf^S!^^^^ fallen to them as a resnlt of the high-handed i^'- foreign policy of Beaconsfield. The heart of the great

Liberal premier was not in these wars; yet to withdraw from them required groat moral courage as well as wisdom. The

Afghans had overwhelmed a British army at Maiwan, hnt in 1680 the famous march of General Roberts, "Bobs," from Kabnl to Kandahar and the defeat of the Afghans at Pir Paimal, afforded an opportunity to retire from the country with dignity, and tbs

1881] THE BOER WAR 593

Afghans were left to themselyes. The annexation of the Trans- vaal, also, had been followed by a revolt of the Boers, who bad no desire to lose their independence for the sake of consolidating English power in South Africa. The British soldier made but a poor showing in conflict with the Boer, who was far better skilled in the art of frontier warfare, and after a series of disasters, an English army was cut to pieces at Majuba Hill and their com- mander. Sir George CoUey, killed. A large English force under General Wood was at hand, but Gladstone was unwilling to con- tinue the farther waste of human life in a struggle in which he from the first felt that right was on the side of the Boers, and accordingly ended the war by granting them substantial independ- ence. Unfortunately, for the sake of salving British pride he retained a vague suzerainty over the Transvaal. As the sequel has shown, this was a mistake. It would have been better either to have renounced all authority or to have pressed the war to the last issue.

A still more formidable trouble confronted the government in Egypt. In 1863, Ismail, the grandson of the old Mehemet Egvpt. EMh All of the Palmerston days, had become Viceroy, or SuezCandL Khedive^ of Egypt. He was a progressive man and anxious to introduce western enterprise and civilization into Egypt. He encouraged Ferdinand de Lesseps in his scheme of cutting a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez and saw the great work finally opened in 18G9. Ismail's daring schemes, however, had run far ahead of his ability as a financier. The wretched peasantry of Egypt, the fellahin^ were entirely unable to meet the ever increasing demands of the government, and in 1875 the Khedive was compelled to sell to England his share in the canal. The money, however, only brought a temporary relief; and in 1879 Ismail tried to shake himself loose from foreign control, but failed, and was deposed in favor of his son, Tewfik ; England and France entered into a dual protectorate, or control of the country. This was the condition of things when Gladstone assumed power in 1880. The native Egyptians resented the subjection of their country to foreigners ; they were jealous of the French and Eng- lish army officers and engineers, who as usual had begun to dis-

694 THE 6B00ND EEA OF BBFOEM [yknul

place the natives in the employ of their own goveirnment, and in 1882 the discontented elements rallied about an Egyptian soldier, known to the world as Arabi Pasha, organized an insurrection, and seized the forts which commanded the harbor and city of Alexandria. The Khedive was powerless to protect his people; rioting, pillage, "and violence followed in the city. France, who was ill at ease over the growing influence of England in Egypt, lefused to assist in maintaining order and left England to settle affairs as best she could. An English fleet was sent to Alexan- dria, and in July, Admiral Seymour bombarded the city; troops Bombard- ^®^® landed, and finally in September, General Wolseley aiSria'^'^ wouud up the affairs of Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir. The jiUy, 1882. Khedive's nominal authority was restored, but Egypt has remained since virtually under English control, and when the day comes for the dismemberment of the Sultan's dominions, Egypt with enough of Syria to secure the canal, will probably be England's share of the partition, thus adding the last stepping stone through the Mediterranean to India.

The end, however, was not yet; the weakening of the Khe- dive's power had encouraged a great religious uprising among the Mohammedan population of the upper Nile. The movement gathered about a mysterious fanatic known as the Mahdi^ or *Hhe expected prophet," who according to certain Mohammedan sects is to appear on the earth in the last days and reduce the

whole world to the reign of righteousness after the QordinVs ' Mohammedau idea. In November, 1883, an Egyptian

army under an English officer known as Hicks Pasha, was defeated by the Mahdi and Hicks slain, and the whole Soudan virtually passed into the hands of the fanatics. Glad- stone had no wish to assume responsibility for the government

of the wild and lawless Soudan, yet he could not leave Novembers, the few Egyptian garrisons that still remained faithful

to be exterminated by the fanatical followers of the Mahdi, and in January, 1884, dispatched Charles George Gordon on his fatal errand to arrange for the withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons from the Soudan. Gordon, who had began his career as an engineer officer, had had a wide experience with the barbaric

1888, 1884J THE SOUDAN 595

raoes of the Orient. In 1864 he had performed a great service for the Chinese government in putting an end to the Taiping revolt; a service which had fastened upon him the name of "'Chinese Gor- don." He was well known in the Soudan, where, from 1874 tc 1879, as representative of the Egyptian government, he had made strenuous efforts to put a stop to the slave trade. Ho reached Khartoum unarmed and almost unattended. He saw at once that it was useless to attempt to treat with the Mahdi and sent for mili- tary assistance. Gladstone, however, still shrank from the enter- prise, and hesitated to send an army to the Soudan, until the Mahdi's hordes hegan to close upon the city and the popular out- cry against leaving Gordon to his fate compelled him to act. In

August 1884, General Wolseley was sent up the Nile ^Jjj^jft^^j^ with a relieving force. After five months of superhu- ^"^^"^ roan toil, on the 28th of January 1885, a flying column

which Wolseley had sent ahead, reached Khartoum, only to find that the city had been betrayed two days before and Gordon slain. After some pretense of a more energetic handling of the Soudan question, the English troops were withdrawn to the Egyptian frontier, and the remaining garrisons left to make the best terms they could with the Mahdi.

The natural reaction which attended the unfortunate outcome of the Soudan affair, greatly weakened the hold of the Gladstone administration upon the country. But the appearance of the ^ _ "Third Reform Act" in 1884 and the agitation which

The**TMrd

Reform Aou** followed, regained something of the confidence of the Liberal element in the nation. By this act, which com- pleted the work begun in 1832, the counties were given the same franchise as the boroughs, thus virtually making household suffrage the law of England. Boroughs with less than 15,000 inhabitants were deprived of separate representation in parlia- ment; boroughs with less than 50,000 were cut down to one rep- resentative each; boroughs with a population between 50,000 and 165,000, received two members each. The representation of Scotland in the Commons was raised to 72, but Ireland was left as in 1868. The act marks a great advance toward uniform electoral districts with uniform representation on the basis of population.

696 THE SECOND EBA OF REFORM [victobl.

The goYernment, thns far, had carried out its reform programme with triumphant success. Gladstone, however, by his continued hostility to Home Rule had roused the enmity of Si^GZc^toae *'^® l^^^ Nationals, and in the very session which 22JJ**^' adopted the Eedistribution Bill, they seized the oppor- tunity, offered by some unimportant details of the bud- get, to transfer their voting Strang th to the opposition. The defeated measure was a proposal to put a new tax on beer and spirits, and was without political significance; but the vote revealed the fact that the Nationals held the balance of power and were prepared to force the government either to compromise or to resign. Gladstone chose the latter course.

The Conservatives were thus returned to power; but their position was precarious. They were dependent upon the good- will of the Irish Nationals for their majority, and first ministry, this Support must neccssarily be uncertain. Lord Salisbury, the new premier, was fully as much opposed to Home Bule as Gladstone; yet he had not been identified with the recent repressive measures of the Liberal ministry and was able to make conciliatory advances to his new allies by dropping the Grimes Act and by appropriating a large sum under the ''Ash- bourne Act" to assist Lrish peasants in buying their farms. The general election of November, however, made little change in the relation of parties. In Ireland the recently extended franchise told for Home Rule and increased the Nationals in parliament to eighty- six ; but in England and Scotland, whore the Liberals received the support of the newly-enfranchised laborers, the National gains were fully met by corresponding Liberal gains.

In the meanwhile, the announcement had been made from various sources that Gladstone himself had embraced the cause of Home Rule. The announcement by Lord Salisbury, ajS^Hmne therefore, that he proposed to suppress the National muiistf^^^^^ League, which had taken the place of the old Land Juiy!^im. League, was enough to send the Nationals all packing again to the Liberal benches. Gladstone returned to power and Home Rule was formally added to the platform of the Liberal party.

18a5, 1886] GLADSTONE AND HOMB RULE 597

It was certain that all the Liberal members would not follow their chief in the espousal of HomeBule; but how serious the defection would be and whether the accession of the ofiAberai Irish vote would sufficiently recruit the depleted ranks to enable them to hold their own, remained to be seen. Hartington and Ooschen and sixteen other Liberals had already refused to assist in the overthrow of the Salisbury government. Others waited in the hope that Gladstone might yet be able to hold the party together and at the same time satisfy the demands of the Irish members. But when the expected Home Rule Bill at last appeared, Chamberlain, Bright, Trevelyan, and some ninety others also withdrew. They refused, however, to be merged in the ranks of the Conservatives, and standing by the old Whig policy of the legislative union of the two kingdoms, adopted the name of the **Liberal Unionists."

The Bill proposed to give the Irish a local parliament, prohib- ited from endowing or disabling any religious body. It cut off the Irish from all representation in the imperial parliament, but required Ireland to pay her share toward the expenses of the imperial government. A **Land Purchase Bill" was added that proposed to advance from the imperial treasury £50,000,000 to be used by the Irish government to assist the tenants in buying their farms under the Ashbourne Act. At the second reading the bill was thrown out largely by the vote of the Union Liberals, although QUidstone'8 "^^"7 ^^ ^^® Irish Nationalists also voted with the FivJeBoF^ opposition because of the proposed exclusion of the ^^^' Irish from the imperial parliament. Gladstone then

appealed to the country. The excitement was intense ; rival can- didates attacked each other with the utmost bitterness, and after one of the most heated campaigns of modern times the Conserva- tives and Liberal Unionists were sent back with a combined major- ity of 118 votes over the Irish and Liberal Home Rulers.

Salisbury had now returned in triumph and Home Eule appar- ently was dead. Something, however, must be done for Ireland, where the peasantry were growing desperate under their sufferings. The plan of fixing rent by judicial action had only increased the bardens of the tenants, since the rates were fixed at a money

598 THE SECOND ERA OF BBFOBM [ytcnmu

yalaation and the prices of farm products had steadily declined. Thus, where it took one pig to pay the rent in 1881, it took two Saiutimry'B P^'' ^° 1886. Salisbury who had promised to the elec- ut^Thc ^^^ "* government that would not flinch," although x^i^ct, ^^ ^^ dropped the Crimes Act when he needed the ^^' Irish votes, now proposed to make the act perpetual,

and carried the measure in spite of the opposition of GladstoDe and the Home Rulers. Hand in hand with this measure, however, the government passed a new Land Act, by which judicial rents that had been fixed before 1886, were to be revised; leaseholders, also, that is those who held land under contracts, who had been excluded from the benefit of the act of 1881, were incladed. The act was passed, although a similar act pro- posed by Parnell the year before had been defeated. In 1888, £10,000,000 were added to the sum appropriated for the purchase of Irish farms under the Ashbourne Act, and the next year parlia- ment formally took in hand some much needed public works in Ireland, such as the construction of a system of drainage and the introduction of railroads.

The government was by no means so engrossed with the Irish question that it did not find time for many other useful acts. In Domestic leg- l^^"^* ^^® empire celebrated the queen's Jubilee in the SM^ry ini<ist of great rejoicing. In 1888, Goschen, the new ministry. Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried out a plan by which the interest on the public debt was reduced from 3, to 2| per cent. In 1889, the government authorized the building of seventy new warships at an expense of £21,500,000. In 1890 and 1891, important educational measures were adopted, which pro- portioned grants to the needs of districts and made elementary education free in England and Wales. In 1888, elective county governments were introduced patterned after the elective Corpora- tion Councils of 1835, and in 1890 a sum of money was applied to such councils of counties as were willing to undertake the estab- lishment of technical and intermediate schools.

In the general election of 1892, Gladstone again came before the country, but upon a somewhat broader platform than in 1886, known as the Newcastle Platform, and the Liberals were returned

18(K^ld94j RETIREMEKT OF GLADSTONE 599

to parliament with a majority of forty votes. Salisbury resigned and Gladstone resumed office for the fourth and last time. Fourth ad- Gladstone at once presented his second Home Rule S^GtodStoiie, ^^^^' which differed from the first largely in giving the '^^' Irish a representation in the imperial parliament. At

first he proposed to allow the Irish members to vote upon imperial questions only; but the injustice of this restriction was so apparent that it was speedily abandoned, and the bill was so amended that the votes of the Irish members should be fully equal to those of other members of parliament. After three months of vigorous discussion, the bill finally passed the Hoase. The Lords, however, rejected it by a vote of 419 to 41. Before such a majority even Gladstone flinched, and although in the Newcastle Programme he had pledged himself "to mend or end" the House of Lords, he refused to raise the gauntlet ; only by a revolution could he have met such an overwhelming opposition.

Home Rule, accordingly, was abandoned, and the ministry

turned to meet other pledges which it had made to the people.

Chief of them in importance was the creation of Parish

**Parinh

couneUs and District Councils, completiug the system of local

Bill ** 1SB2. ' JT o »/

self-government begun by the Act of 1835. By this act *' Parish Councils" were established in all the larger parishes, and "Parish Meetings" in the smaller parishes; the parishes, also, were grouped into districts and over each district was placed a "Dis- trict Council." Thus a regular chain of local elective governing bodies was instituted, rising from the parish councils through the district and the county councils to the imperial parliament.

Gladstone was now approaching his eighty-fifth year. His service had been almost continuous since 1832, and if ever a

servant had earned tlie right to rest from his labors, of Qiadr he had. He still carried his burden of years with rare

grace and dignity ; and yet in the course of nature the end could not be far off. Gladstone determined, therefore, to resign, and on March 3, 1894, took leave of his colleagues and retired to the peace of his beautiful home at Hawarden Castle Here he died four years later, Mhv 19, 1898,— the "Grand OJd Man" to the last.

600 THE SECOND ERA OF REFORM [ticxwu

Upon the retirement of Gladstone his duties were turned oyer to his foreign secretary, Archibald Philip Primrose, better known

as Lord Bosebery, who made few changes in the cabinet minisirv^^^^ and thus virtually continued the Gladstone ministry. ^une mL ^^^ programme which the new premier announced was

formidable but practical, following lines already laid down by his chief, even to the continued shelving of Home Bule. It soon became evident, however, that with the retirement of Gladstone the spirit had departed which had so long held the Liberal party together. The Irish National party, moreover, had been shattered by the fall of Parnell, and their divided forces conld no longer be counted as an element of Liberal strength. The strength of the ministry, therefore, was rapidly waning; and in June 1895, an adverse vote upon a question of comparative unimportance forced Kosebery to resign.

Upon the resignation of Rosebery, Salisbury was for the third time invited to form a ministry. He had little reason to expect

support from a parliament whose liberal majoritv had ative reaction forced him to resign three years before, and at onco

appealed to the nation. The results fully revealed the strength of the Conservative reaction. In the new House, out of 588 members, the Conservative ministry commanded 411 votes. The campaign, however, had been fought out chiefly on the issue of Home Eule, and inasmuch as the Liberal Unionists had returned seventy-one members, in making up his Cabinet, Lord Salisbury saw fit to strengthen his position still further by recog- nizing this element in the appointment of Joseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary, Goschen as First Lord of the Admiralty, an4 Spencer Compton Cavendish, the duke of Devonshire, as Presi dent of the Council. Lord Salisbury himself assumed the dutie* of foreign secretary, and James Arthur Balfour, his- nephetr, became First Lord of the Treasury and leader of the Commons

The third Salisbury ministry was thus strictly a coalition ministry; and, as T^dth most of the coalition ministries of the past, it not only proved unusually strong, but also advanced to the very ground held by the party which it nominally supplanted. Its Liberal tendencies were singularly illustrated by its attitude

1901] AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION 601

toward Irish Home Bale. While its opposition to the establishment of a separate Irish parliament remained as uncompromising as ever, it fully acknowledged the justice of Irish discon- tendencytjf tent, and bv the ** Local Government Act" of 1898, third min- extended to Ireland the system of government by means ^' of local councils, recently established in Great Britain,

thus really adopting the principles of the Union Liberals rather than the Conservatives, and granting to Ireland a position within the empire which approximates nearly to that of Scotland and Wales.

The attitude of the Salisbury ministry toward the colonies, also, was far different from the position of the earlier Gonserva- Awiraiian ^'^®^ > ^^ ^^^ more liberal even than that of the Glad- j^^i^^ stone ministry of 18G7. Thus the six Australian i. 1901. states were allowed an absolutely free hand in forming

the federal constitution that went into effect on the first day of the new century, although the new constitution is not only more democratic than the Canada Federation Act, but in some impor- tant features it is more democratic even than the Constitution of the United States.

The foreign administration of Lord Salisbury, in its patience and moderation, also resembled the conduct of that office by the Liberals rather than the Conservatives, and for the pr>McM 0/ ' same reason was severely criticized. Even Conserva- tives did not fail to rail at their chief, for what they have been pleased to call a vacillating, truckling policy. They remembered the glorious days of the Berlin Congress, and con- trasted the forbearance of Salisbury with the somewhat ostenta- tious bluster of the old-time chief of the Jingoes. Yet in spite of the criticism, as far as the issue has yet been revealed, as in the Venezuela boundary dispute, the wisdom of Lord Salisbury's posi- tion has certainly been vindicated. In general, while paying little heed to the bogies which in the days of Palmerston or Beaconsfield used to send English politicians into such paroxysms of alarm, and persistently refusing to go to war simply to avert Eome hypothetical danger to the empire in the future, he steadily insisted upon the integrity of the empire, the respect of existing

602 THE ^SECOND ERA OF REFORM [v croui

treaties on the part of foreign nations, and the dnty of the goT- emment to protect its subjects, and was content to advance the interests of the empire upon the more substantial basis of com- mercial treaties and international friendships.

It is too early to write the history of the late Boer War, or to attempt to tabulate its results. It is interesting, however, to note that in the one case where Lord Salisbury allowed '^r'war himself to be forced from his policy of moderation and forbearance, he has been more severely criticized than for all the other measures of his administration put together. But whatever the rest of the world may think, or whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history, the people of Great Britain cer- tainly gave their judgment in the elections of 1900, and when he laid down the duties of his office in 1902, it was not because he had lost the confidence of the nation, but because the bur- den of advancing years had fully warned him that his work was done.

On the 22d of January 1901, the long reign of Queen Victoria came to an end. She had entered the sixty-fourth year of her Death of reign and was completing the eighty-second year of her ^rkl^jan- *S®" ^^ ^^^ length of her reign, few monarchs have uary 22,1901. surpassed her; in the solid achievements of her reign, no monarch can rival her. It is true that the greatness of England during this long period has been due to ten thousand forces, working many of them in unseen and even humble channels, and that with much of this achievement, directly and personally, Vic- toria had little to do. This fact, however, is not by any means to be ascribed to the personal nonentity of the sovereign, but to the complexity of modern national life and to the very multiplicity of the sources from which it springs. But if a list of these sources were to be drawn out, of the elements that have moulded and directed British character, that have contributed most to British greatness during the past sixty years, there must be mentioned among the first the goodness, the personal nobility, the sweet womanhood of her who so long bore the title of Queen, who im- parted a new dignity to monarchy, and who made the sovereign once more an object of patriotic affection.

t9014iK)3] EDWARD VII. 603

With the new king, Edward VII., who enters into the posses- sion of this priceless inheritance of affection and loyalty, to all ' appearances there begins a new era in the development begiM wtth of British history. Since Gladstone's retirement, the

Edward VII. , . i. r j* •!• i. j !_•

party in power has shown no disposition to undo his work. But just as the Conservatives of 1841 accepted the work of the first era of reform as a finality, and joining with the Con- servative Whigs advanced to Whig ground under the leadership of Peel, so the Conservatives of to-day, uniting with the less radical wing of the Liberals, have accepted the reforms of the Gladstone period, and under the leadership of Balfour and Chamberlain have boldly faced the future.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Thb Engush in India: Lee, Source Book, pp. 554-568; Bright, History of England^ III, pp. 1115-1128, 1185; Lyall, Rise of British Dominion in India; Macaulav, Easay on Cliv«: Cawston, The Early Chartered Companies; Keene, The Fall of the Moghul Emptrej Lytdl, Hastings; Caldecott, English Colonization and Empire; Dilke, Prolh lems ofOreaUr Britain.

Enoubh COLONns in the New World: Terry, pp. 600-863, 80d-811, 896-898; Oreen, H. B.

P., IV, 166-178, 187, 2«0, 218-283. 237-289; Payne, Htstory of European Colonies, pp. 88-47,

68-66, 68-64, 82-88. 106, 107, 123-125; Seeley, Expansion of England; Caldecott, English

ColoiUzation and Empire; Macaulay. Essay on Chatham; Parkman, Montcalm and

Wo{fe; Mahan. Influence of Sea Fouler in History.

The Bboinninos of Party Government in England: Green, H. E. P., IV, pp. 58- 61; Horace Walpole, Memoirs of lieign of George II.; Bolingbroke, Correspondrnce;

the Qrenville Papers; L*ecky. History of England in the Eighteenth Century; Macau- lay, History of England; Essay on (fhatham; Trevelyan. Ltfeof Charles Janus Fox; Morley, Edmund Burke; Rosebery, Pitt; Goldwin Smith, Three English Statesmen; May, Constitutional History of England, I. pp. 181-236.

The Union of England and Scotland: Bright, III, pp. 924-928; Green, H B. P.. IV, pp, 90-03; Adams and Stephens, Documents, pp. 4TO-483; Lee, Source Book, pp.

The Inddstkial Revolution: Toynbee, Industrial Revolution: Smiles, Life of George Stephenson; Life of Bolton and Watt; lAuirhesul, Life cf James Watt; TajIot, Introduction to a History of the Factory System; Trail, Social England, Vol. V.

Parliament ART Reform: Lee. Source Book, pp. 519-529; Adams and Stephens, pp. 507, 514-626, 532-587. 540-542, 553-555; May, U, pp. ^-458.

Catholic Emancipation: Lee, Source Book, np. 497-509, 511-518; Adams and Ste- phens, pp. 510-513; McCarthy, History of Our Own Times; May, Vol. Ill, pp. 60-278.

The Chartist Movement and the Repeal of the Corn Laws: Bright (see Index) ; Lee, Source Book, pp. 530-540; McCarthy, History of Our Own Times; Morley, Life of Cobden.

IBBLAND IN THB NINETEENTH Centttry: Lee. Source Book, pp. 483-493; Adams and Stephens, pp. 497-60U; Bright (see Index); McCarthy, History of Our Oicn Times; Gladstone, article in Nineteenth (Century Rev., Jan. 1K89; Mav, III, pp. 299-836.

Qbowth of Colonial Federation: Trail, Social England, VI, np. 680-688; Cottln and Payne. Colonies and Dependencies; Roberts, History of Canada; Bourinot, Canada; Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain: Parkin. Imperial Federation; Goldwin Smith, Essays on Questions of the Day: North Atnerican Review, Vol. 157. p. 485; Nineteenth Cent. Rev., Vol. 80, pp. 480, 490, 509; Contemporary Rev., Jan. and AprU, 187a

Thb Dbwlopment of English Local Government in Ninetkknth Centubt: Biig:.t, III. pp. 145<J-146I. May III. pp. 275-298: Courtney, The Working Constitution of (he United Kingdom, Part II; Porrttt, The Englishman at Home.

INDEX

Aachen, Treaty of, 482

Aberdeen, see Gordon

Abhorrers, the, 407

Abouklr Bav, battle of, 522

Abyssinian \Var, the, 581

Acre, siege of, 96

Addlngton, Henry, Viscount Sldmouth, prime minister, 524 : renews war with France, 525 ; In Ministry of Ail the Talents, 527 ; in Liverpool min- istry, 531 : the Six Acts, 530, 540 ; resigns, 540

Addison, Joseph, 462

Adrian IV. and Ireland, 91

Adrianople, Treaty of, 543

Adwalton Moor. 352

Afghan War, 352

Africa, beginning of British power in, 535

Agincourt, 198

Agrarian Revolution, the, 499

Agreement of the People, the, 366

Agrlcola in Britain, 3

Aldan, 14

Aid. Feudal, first paid by nation, 77

Alabama Claims, 570

Albemarle, see Monk

Albert, Prince Consort. 558. 566

Alexander I. of Russia. In French wars, 526. 527 ; withdraws from Conti- nental System. 530 ; expels Napoleon, 532 ; the Holy Alliance, 542

Alexander II. of Russia and the Crimean War, 569

Alexander II. of Scots, opposes John Lackland, 112. 113

Alexander III., I'ope, relations to Henry II.. 89

Alexandria, bombardment of, 594

Alfred the Great, 18-25

Alien Bill. 453

Alnwick, battle of, 93

America. United States of, condition of Colonies, 484 : England and France in, 485; the Stamp Act, 502; Du- ties Bill. 504 : Intolerable Acts. 510 ; First Continental Congress, 510 ; Second Continental Congress, 511 ; the Revolution. 510-513; the Conti- nental System. 528 ; second war with Great Britain. 531. 532; atti- tude toward Canadian insurrection. 552 ; boundary disputes, 501, 562 ; attitude of l^gland toward Civil War. 575 ; Alabama claims, 576

Amicable Loan, the, of Henry VIII., 242

Amiens, the Mise of. 121 Peace of. 524

Amity and Commerce, the Treatv of. 531

Angevin dominions, loss of. 103, 120

Angles, settle In Britain, 4-10

Anjou. House of, 78

Annates, 117, 250, 252, 450

Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard H., 181, 185 Queen of England, 445, 447 ; supports Whigs, 450 ; restores the Tories, 456; death, 458; England during reign of. 458-462

Annual Indemnity Act, 474

Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, 71. 73 ; quarrel with Henry I., 74-75

Arabl Pasha, 594

Architecture, changes In during Hun- dred Years' war, 157 ; under the Tudors, 226

Argyll, see Campbell

Arkwrlght, Invents spinning machine.

Armada, the. 299-301

Armagnacs, French party of, 193, 198

Armlniaus, the, 327

Arms Act, the, 564

Army Enlistment Act, 584

Army IMot, the, 341. 343

Arras, congress at, 202

Arteveidt, James Van, 152, 153 Philip Van, 181

Arthur of Brittany, 102. 103

Articles of the Barons, the, 109

Arundel, Thomas, archbishop, 194, 195

Ashbourne Act, 596

Ashley, see Cooper

Askew, Anne, death, 265.

Asser, 23

Assize of Arms, 94, 128

Athelstau, 28-29, 31, 32

Attainder, act first passed, 210: tbf Irish act, 432 ; the last act ot 440

Atteibury Plot, the, 472

Auerstadt, battle of, 527

Aughrim, battle of. 433

Augsburg, league oi, 421, 434 Peace of, 305

Augustine. 12. 13

Austerlitz, battle of, 527

Australia, colonized. 517, 562 : self gov- ernment in, 565 ; federation, 601

Austrian successioOt war of the, 477, 479

Austro-Sardlnlan Treaty, 481

Babington Plot, the, 297, 298 Bacon, Sir Francis, 303, 318

Roger, 138 Balaclava, battle of, 568 Balfour. James Arthur, 600 Ball, John, 177, 180 Balllol, Edward, invades Scotland, 151; expelled. 153 ; death, 163

John, claimant to Scottish theme, 139, 140

604

606

Ballot Act, tlie, 5S4

Bank of BnglaiifL the. 436. 437. 550

Bannockbum. battle of. 144

Barbadoea, settled. 335

Bareboae*8 parliament, are Parliament

Barnet. battle of. 218

Barons* war. 121

Baug«, battle of, 199

Beactay Head, battle off. 435.

Beaconafleld, ser Disraeli

Beauchamp, Thomas. Earl of Warwick. 183

Beaafort, Edmand. Dnke of Somerset. 204. 207, 208. 209 Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 194,

200, 203 Henry. Duke of Somerset, 215 Thomas, Chancellor, 194

Beauforta, the, 185

Beaumont and Fletcher, 305

Becket, Thomas &. chancellor. 85 : quar- rel with Henry II., 85-87, 89. 90; death, 91

Bede. 16

Bedford, John, Duke of. Protector, 200; conducts war in France, 201 ; death, 202

Bedford. «ee Russell

Benedict Biscop, 15. 18

Benevolences, of Edward IV., 220; of Henry VII., 234

Bentinck, William, Duke of Portland, prime minister, 529 Lord William, in India, 562

Berlin Congress, 688

Bernicla, 5

Berwick, Treaty of, 337

Bible. 9ee Scriptures

Bigod, Roger, Earl of Norfolk. 133

Bishops' war, the first, 337 ; the sec- ond, 339

Black Death. 158. 160. 161. 162

Blackheath, battle of, 233

B]Ack Indulgence, the. 408

Black Prince, see Edward

Biackwater, battle of the, 30t

Blake, Admiral. 370. 372, 381, 389

Blanche of Castile. 112

Blenheim, battle of, 448. 449

Bloody Assizes, the. 415

Bloreheath, battle of, 210

Bliicher, In Waterloo campaign. 534

Boer war. the first, 592. 593 ; the sec- ond, 602

Bohun, Humfrey de, Earl of Hereford, 133

Boleyn. Anne, 243. 245. 253. 200

Bollngbroke, see Henry IV. and St. John

Bombay, becomes British possession. 395

Bonaparte, Napoleon, early successes. 521 ; First Consul, 522 ; Amiens. 524 ; Emperor, 525 ; proposes to In- vade England. 525-526 : supreme in Europe, 527 ; the Continental Sys- tem. 528; in Spain. 530; the Rus- sian campaign. 532. 533 ; Waterloo, 534 : St. Helena. 535

Boniface of Savoy. 110

Bonner. Bishop, 269

Book land, 9

Borodino, battle of. 532

BoroQghbridge. battle of, 147

Boacawen. Admiral. 490

Boston Massacre, the, 509

Boston Tea Party, the. 509

Bosworth. battle of. 223

Botany Bay, colony founded. 517

Rothwell Brigg. battle of. 409

Bothwell. Earl of. 291

Bourbon Family Compacts, the, 477, 493

BouTlnes, battle of. 258

Boycott, origin of name, 591

Boyne. battle of the. 432

Braddock, General, 485

Bramham Moor, battle of, 192

Breaut^, Faulkes de. 112, 115

Breda. Declaration of, 388, 389

I'eace of. 395 Bretigny, Treaty of. 164. 165 Breton succession, the, 154 Bridgewater, see Elgerton Bright, John. 555, 563, 590 Britain, ancient, 1. 2 ; Roman, 3. 4 ;

early confederacies of. 10 ; introduc-

tion of Christianity, 12. 13-15 British American Colonies Confederation

Act. 580, 581 British Museum, foundation of, 483 Brownists. see Separatists Bruce, Robert, the elder, claimant to

Scottish throne, 139 Robert, the younger, »ee Robert I. of

Scotland Brunanburh. battle of, 29 Brynglas, battle of, 191 Buckingham, ace Vllliers and Stafford Buckingham, rising of, 222 Bunker Hill, battle of, 511 Bunyan, John, 392 Burdett. Sir Francis, measure for relief

of Catholics, 545 Burgh. Hubert de, Justiciar of Henry

111., 113. 115. 116 Burghley, see Cecil

Burgundy. Charles, Duke of. 218. 219 John. Duke of. 193. 198. 199 Philip, Duke of, 199 Philip of, marries Joana of Aragon,

Burhgcmot, the, 34 Burials Act. the, 590 Burke, Edmund, 505, 516 Bute, see Stuart

Butler, James, Duke of Ormond, 867. 393 Bye Plot. the. 309

Byng. George, Admiral, wins Pessaro, 469 John, Admiral, 486

Cabal, the, 398. 402

Cabinet Government, beginning of, 438,

439 Cade kebelllon, the, 205, 206 Cadwallon. 13 Caedmon, 16

Calais, siege of. 150 ; loss of. 282 Calcutta. Black Hole of, 4H6 Calder. Admiral Robert, 526 Calendar Bill, 483 Cambuskenneth. battle of, 141 Cameronlan Revolt, 409

606

INDEX

Campbell. Ardilbald, Earl of Argyll, 804 Sir Colin, Lord Clyde. 573

Campegglo, Cardinal. 244

Camperdown. battle off. 520.

Campion. Edmund. 295, 296

Campo Formio, Treaty of. 520.

Canada, struggle for, 491. 493 ; the prov- inces of. 515 ; discontent In. 552 ; the union. 553 ; the federation, 581 ; Fenian Invasion of. 582

Canal building in England. 498

Canning, George, in Portland ministry, 529 : quarrel with Castlereagh, 531 ; foreign secretary. 540 ; opposes the Holy Alliance, 541 ; prime minister, 544

Canterbury Tales, 175

Canute, 41-45

Cape Breton Island, acquired by En- glish, 490, 493

Cape Colony, acquired by English, 510

Cape Flnistere. battle off. 526.

Cape St. Vincent, battle off, 520.

Cardinal College founded, 243

Caroline of Anspach, influence of, 472 of Brunswick, 540

Carta Mercatoria, 130

Carteret, John, Earl Granville, ministry of, 480 : fall of, 481 ; President of the Council, 484

Cartw right, Edmund, Inventor of power loom. 496

Carucagc, 97, 98

Castlereagh, see Stewart

Catesby, Robert, in Gunpowder Plot, 310

Catherine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII., 235. 237. 241, 243; appeals to Uome, 244 ; divorced, 253 ; death, 256 of France, Queen of Henry V., 199 de Medici, 290

of Portugal, Queen of Charles II., 394 II., of Hussia, 403, 518. 522

Catholic Emanolpation. under James I.. 310-311: under Charles II., 397. 401; James II., 418. 420; the Gor- don riots, 508 : Catholics allowed to hold commission, 538 ; emancipation proposed, 544 ; j?ranted, 545 ; ace also O'Conneil and Ireland

(?!avaliers, the, 353

Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 591

Spencer Compton, Duke of Devonshire, in Salisbury ministry, 600

Cawnpore. massacre at. 574

Caxton, William, English printer, 227

Ceawlln. West-Saxon king. 5, 6. 11. 13

Cecil. Robert. Karl of Salisbury, minister of Elizabeth, 303; under James I.. 308, 309; financial policy of, 313; foreign policy of. 315: death, 315 Robert Arthur. Viscount Cranbourne, Marquis of Salisbury, in Beacons- field's ministry, 587 : becomes leader of party. .^>89 : first ministry of. 596 ; second ministry of. 597. 508 : third ministry of, 600 ; liberal tendencies of, 601 William, I/ord Burjfhley, Secretary of State under Elizabeth, 284. 303

Celts, early settlements in Britain, 2-5

Oeorh tBe, 7, 80

Cessation of Arms, the, 354

Ceylon, taken by English, 519

Chalgrove Field, 354

Chamberlain, Joseph, in Gladstone'i

ministry, 590 ; in Salisbury's minis- try, 600 Chancellor, Richard, 304 Chancellor, the. Instituted, 64 Chapter of Myton, 145 Charles, Archduke of Austria, straggle

for Spanlah crown, 451-455 Charles Edward, "the Young Pretender,"

482, 483 v.. Emperor, succeeds to Spanish

throne, 240 ; elected emperor, 240 ;

supported by English, 24i VI., Emperor, 473, 480 VII., Emperor (Elector of Bavaria),

480, 482

I. of England, directs government, 320 : marriage of, 321 ; accession and

/ character of, 321 ; quarrel with par- liament, 322-329 : arbitrary govero- ment of, 380-340; troubles with Scotland, 336-339; the Long Parlia- ment, 340 ; In Scotland. 344 ; loses control of parliament, 347 ; retires to Hampton Court, 348 : raises royal standard at Nottingham, 350: at Edgehill, 351, 352; the Irish al- liance of; 354 ; wins Xiostwithlel, 856; at Naseby, 858: loses last army, 859 ; surrenders to Scots. 359, 360 ; abduction of, 361 ; rejects heads of the proposals, 362 ; in- trigues with Scots, 863; trial and death, 365.

II., of England, proclaimed in Ireland, 367 ; crowned in Scotland. 870 ; flees to France, 870 : accession to En- glish throne, 888 ; foreign policy of, 394, 399, 401; the stop of the Ex- chequer, 401 ; quarrels with parlia- ment, 405, 407; the Exclusion Bill. 409; last parliament of, 410; at- tacks the charters, 411 ; death, 412 ; character, 413

IV. of France, 148, 152 ^

V. of France, wars with Edward III., 163, 164, 165

VI. of France, 193, 199, 200

VII. of France, 198, 199, 200, 202

VIII. of France, wars with Henry VII., 230-237

II. of Spain, 399, 443, 444

III. of Spain, renews family compact, 493

IV. of Spain, deposed by Napoleon, 530

XII. of Sweden, 469

Charter, the Great, 110, 111 ; the strug- gle for, 113-124"i reissues of. 114; confirmed by Edward I., 138, 134

Charters to towns, granted by Henry I.. 79

Chartist agitation, the, 555, 560

Chatham, see Pitt

Chaucer. Geoffrey, 174, 175

Chepstow, battle at 216

Chester, destroyed by Et***Ifrld, 6; rt»

INDEX

607

•tored by Edward the Elder, 25, t6; taken by William the Conquer- or, 59 ; county palatine of, estab- lished, 63

Chester, Council of, atK>llshed, 342 Ralph of, 83

Chesterfield, see Stanhope

Chevy Chase, 190

Chichester, Sir Arthur, in Ireland, 314

China, wars of England with, 557, 574

Chivalry, 139

Christian Brothers, association of. 251

Christianity, early, in Britain, 13. 14, 15

Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 22, 23, 67

Church Bill, the, 548

Churchill, John, Duke of Marlborough, in service of James II., 415; In ire- land. 433 ; aids Dutch, 446 : in war of Spanish succession, 440, 451, 456 ; in Whig ministry, 450. 452; in George I. first ministry, 466 Saiah, Lady Marlborough, see Jen- nings

Cistercians, the, in England. 80-82

CUy, the, 26. 31, 79, 100, 102

Civil List, the, adopted, 436

Claim of Rights, the. 433

Clare. Richard de. "Strong-bow." Earl of Strigui and Pembroke in Irelano, 92 Ridiard of. Earl of Gloucester, leader of the barons. 118 : quarrels with Simon de Montfort, 110: death, 120 Richard of. Earl of Gloucester, sup- ports Simon de Montfort, 120 : turns against Simon, 123 ; at Evesham, 124

Clarence, George, Duke of, 214 : Jo'ns Warwick, 216: joins Edward IV., 218; death. 219 Thomas, Duke of. president of council, 194; death, 199

Clarendon, assize of. 87, 88 Code, 391

Constitutions of, 86-88, 91 Earl of. see Hyde

Clarkson. Thomas, 518

Claverhouse, nee Graham

Claypole, Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, 383

Clement VII.. opposed to Urban VI.. 181

VII., at war with Charles V., 241 :

opposes divorce of Henry VIII.. 244

Clergy, low moral tone of. In time of Georges, 479

Clericis Laico8, the Bull, so named. 132

Clive. Robert, Lord, In India, 489 : death, 508

Closter-seven, convention of. 488. 490

Cluniac reform, the. Influence of, 80

Clyde, 8€€ Campbell

Cobbett, William. 539

Cobden, Richard. 555. 502

Cobham Plot, the, 309

Codrlngton, Admiral, wins Navarlno, 542

Coercion Act. the. 548

Coffee, first introduced, 461

Coffee houses, the. suppressed, 404

Coke. Sir Edward, 316, 318, 319, 323, 326, 338

Cold Stream ^ 'bards, organized, 390

Colet, William, 237, 242, 247

Col ley. Sir George, 593

"Colloquy on PlTgrlmages," 247

Colonies, English, in western hemisphere, 335; relations to French, 484-485; progress of, 562

Comitafua, the, 6

Commission for the Trial of Ecclesi- astical Causes, 417

Common Pleas, the, 94 ; merged In Su- preme Court of Judicature, 585

Commons, development of. Council of St. Albans. 107 ; Montfort's parliament, 122 : the Model parliament, 131 ; the parliament of York. 148 ; under Edward III., 172; gains power un- der Henry IV., 195; gains right to decide contested elections, 312 ; pub- lish debates of, 551 ; see also Par- liament

Commonwealth, the. on the seas, 370. 371 ; respected in Europe. 371 ; war with Spain, 381 ; war with Holland, 371, 372

Communa, 101, 102

Company of Jesus, ace Jesuits

Comyn, John, assassination of, 142

Confederation of the Rhine, the. 527

Conservatives, origin of party, 559

Consplracy-to-Murder Bill, 574

Constance of Castile, 185

Constitutional or Hanoverian Tories, the, 475

Continental System, 528 ; completion of, 529 : failure of, 530

Continental Congress, First, 511 ; Sec- ond. 511

Conventlcal Act, the, 391, 399.

Cooper, Anthony Ashley, Earl of Shafts- bury, member of Charles II. 's first council, 388; of Cabal. 398; Lord Chancellor. 400 : opposes Declara- tion of Indulgence, 401 ; dismissed from council. 402 : opposes Non- Resistance Bill, 404 : part In Habeas Corpus Act, 40^ : part In founding of Whig party, 407; fail of, 410, 411

Coote. Eyre, defeats Lally at Wande-

wash. 491 Copenhaeen. bombardment of, 509 Copyholder, 160 Corn Laws, 538 ; agitation against, 555 ;

repeal of, 563 Cornwallls, Lord, in America, 512; in

Ireland, 521 Corporation Act, the. 391 Corporations attacked by Charles II.,

411, 412: by .Tames II.. 419, 420;

reform of the. 540 Cotton famine, the, 575. 576 Counties palatine, 63 Country Party, the. 403, 404, 405. 406 County Councils. {)98 Courtenay. Henry. Marquis of Exeter,

plots against Henry VIII., 257, 258 Court Party, the, 403. 406 Courts, the royal, Htt- Curia Reyis Covenanters, the. 3.36. 338 : persecutions

under Restoration, 394 CrafUman, the, 462

608

IKDEX

Cranmer, Thomas, archbishop of Can- terbury, 252 ; assists Henry VIII. in securing divorce, 253: in the Reformation, 262, 265, 269; death, 281

Crecy, battle of, 155, 156

Crefleld, battle of, 490

Cr^py, Treaty of, 264

Cresslngham in Scotland, 140

Crimea, seized by Russia, 518

Crimean war. 567-569

Crimes Act, the, 591, 596

Crompton, Samuel, invented the spinning mule, 495

Cromwell, Oliver, first appearance in par- liament, 353 : organizes the Iron- oides, 354 ; at Marston Moor, 355 ; quarrel with Manchester, 357 ; ap- pointed Lleutenant-General, 358 ; seizes Charles I., 361. 362; in the second Civil War, 364 ; puts down the Levellers. 366; in Ireland, 368; at Dunbar, 369 ; at Worcester, 370 ; attitude of. toward the Dutch War, 372; expels the "Rump," 375; pro- tectorate of. 378-383; death and character of. 383, 384 Richard, the protectorate of, 385, 386 Thomas, minister of Henry VIIL, 255, 256, 261

Cropredy Bridge, battle of, 356

Crusade, Henry II. and the second, 94 ; Richard I. in third, 96, 97

Crystal Palace, the, 566

Culloden, battle of, 483

Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of. succeeds to Hanoverian throne, 551 William Augustus, Duke of, 482, 483, 488

Ouria Regis, of William I., 63 ; develop- ment under William's successors. 76; restored by Henry II., 85, 87, 94 : division of Curia, 116

Custom, the Great, 130, 134

Cuthbert, 15, 16

Dalhousie. Lord, in India, 562, 570

Danby, ace Osborne

Danegeld, the, early levies of, 37, 39, 44 ; in time of William I., 64 ; abolished, 88

Daneiaph, the. established, 19 ; recov- ered by English, 27

Danes, invade England, 17, 24 ; conquest of England by, 37, 43

Darien Company, the, 452

Darnley, see Stuart, Henry

David I.. King of Scotland, ally of Ma- tilda of Anjou, 82 II.. King of Scotland, finds refuge in France. 1.^2 : beaten at Neville's Cross, 156 ; released from captivity, 163

DawRton, battle of. 11

Decemvlrate. the, 375

Declaration of Indulgence, first, of Charles II.. 307; the second. 401; of James II.. 418; reissue of, 420

Declaration of Rights, the, 428

Declaratory Act, the, 503

De Dominio Divino, 171

Defoe, Daniel, 461

Deira, settled by English, 5

Derby, see Stanley

DeRuyter, Admiral, 395, 407

Derwent water. Lord, rising of, 466

Desbo rough. Cromwell ian General, 376, 385, 386

Despenser, Hugh le. Justiciar of Henry III., killed at Evesham. 124

Despensers, the, favorites of Edward II., 146-147 ; control adminiatration of Edward IL, 148 ; fall of, 149

Dettlngen, battle of, 481

Devereaux, Robert, Earl of Essex, favor- ite of Elizabeth, 303 Robert, Earl of Essex, parliamentary general, 351, 352, 356, 358

Devolution, war of, 399

Dewitt, Grand Pensioner of Holland, 395, 400

Disestablishment, Act of, 582, 583

Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beacoosfleld. opposes Corn Law repeal, 563; as- sociated with Derby. 566, 575; his fancy franchises, 576; prime minis- ter, 579 ; second ministry. 586 ; atti- tude toward Russo-Turkish war, 587 ; decline of influence. 589.

Dissenters, founding of body of. 391; gain of right of, to hold civil office, 544

Distraint of Knighthood, 130; use of by Charles I., 330 ; abolished. 342

Domesday survey, the, 64, 65

Douglas, Archibald, Earl of, captured at Homildon Hill, 191 ; part in ris- ing of Percles, 192

Dover, battle of, 50

the secret Treaty of, 399, 401

Drake, Admiral Francis, 294, 295. 298, 300, 304

Drapler Letters, the, 461

Dry den. John, his ** Absalom and Ach- Itophel," 410

Dudley. Edmund, minister of Henry

Vll., JiOO

John, Lord Lisle, Earl of Warwick, 265, 271 ; controls Edward VI.'s eovernment, 271. 272 ; made Duke of Northumberland. 272, 273 : supporu "Queen Jane," 274 ; fall of, 27jf

Dunbar, battle of. 369-370

Dundee, see Graham

Dunes, battle of the, 386

Dungeness, battle off, 372.

Dunkirk, becomes English 386 ; sold by Charles II.

Dunse Law. battle of. 337

Dunstan. 32, 33. 36, 37

Dupplin Moor, battle of, 151

Duquesne, Fort. 400

Duras, Louis. Earl of Feversham, com- mands at Sedgemoor, 415

Durham, sent to Canada. 553

Durham, massacre at, 57

Dutch, the, sec Netherlands

Ealder. the, 31 Kaldorman, the, 6. 32 Earthquake, Council of the, 181 Eastern Association, the. 351, 358

possession, 395

INDEX

609

Bttt India CompanT. chartered. 302: corruption of, 507; put under con- trol of KOTemment. 515 : charter re- newed, 550 ; abolished, 573 ; ace also under India

Edsar, Atheling. 52, 56. 57

Edgar, the Peaceful. 33-35

Kdgecote. battle of. 216

Bdsehlll, campaign of. 351-352

Edmgton, battle of. 19

Edmund* Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, 117 Ironside, 38, 42, 43 King of West Saxons, 29 the martyr of East Anglla, 18

Bdred, 29. 32

Edric the Grasper, 42. 43

Education, time of Henry I., 70 : advance In public, 557, 558 : Elementary Act. 584 ; in England and Wales. 508

Edward I., associated with Henry III. In barons' war. 118. 12ii. 122 124 : accession of, 126: reduces Wales, 126; statutes of, 127-131 ; relations to the church. 132 ; quarrels with his barons, 133; wars with Scot- land, 130-142 ; death, 142 II., first Prince of Wales, 127. 134: accession of 143 ; puts down Thom- as of Lsncaster, 147 : treachery of Queen Isabella against. 148 ; abdi- cation and death, 140 : constitu- tional significance of reign of. 150 III., made to take part in plot against his fsther. 148; Guardian of the Kingdom, 149 : assumes crown. 15<> ; restores order, 151 : supports to- ward Balliol against Scots. ITtl, 152; begins wars with France, 1 .'»:{; claims French crown. 153 ; cam-

S signs of Crecy and Calais. 154- 56 ; gaiety of court of, 157 ; en- courages commerce. 158 ; labor laws of, 160, 161 ; renews war with France, 162 ; personal decline of. 164, 166: death, 172: character of reign, 173-174

IV., wins Mortimer's Cross, 213: ac- cession of, 213; character of. 214: marries Elizabeth Woodville. 215: revolt of the Nevilles, 216. 217 ; sec- ond reign of, 210 : death, 220

v., succession of, 220 ; sent to Tower by Richard of Gfoucester, 221 : mur- der of, 222

VI., birth. 261; accession of. 266; part in Reformation. 266-274 ; death, 274

VII.. accession of, 603 tfldward Balliol, King of Scotland, see nalllol

Prince, son of Henry VI. and Isabella, birth of, 207 ; deatli of at Tewkes- bury. 218

the Black Prince, campaigns In south- western France, 162. 163 ; Duke of Aqultalne. 165: returns to Eng- land. 166 : heads reform party, 160: death, 170

the Confessor. King of England in- vited to assume crown, 46 ; personal

tralta of, 49, 50; quarrels with Earl Godwin. 50. 51 ; death, 52 ; abolishes Danegeld, 64

Edward the Elder, King of England, aooaa- slon of 25 ; reconquers Danelagh, 26, 27 : death, 27 ; laws of. 28 the Martyr. King of England. 36

Edward, the Etheiing, recall and death, 52

Edwin. King of Northumbria. 13, 14 Earl of Merda, 53. 54. 59

Edwy. King of England. 29. 32, 33

Egbert, 11. 12. 16. 17. 18

Egerton. Francis. I>uke of Bridgewater. builder of Manchester-Liverpool Canal. 408

Egypt, English influence established in, 503

Eldred, Bl^op of York. 56, 57. 65

Eleanor, wife of Henry II., 84, 85, 92, 103

Klfrlc. 37

Hlfrlda, 36

Klgiva. 32

Eliot, Sir John, attacks Buckingham. 323. 326: resolutions of. 320; im- prisonment and death. 329

Elizabeth, queen, birth. 253 ; accession of, 284 : religious policy of, 285 : early relations to Mary. Queen of Scots, 2S8, 280; restores the coin- age, 281* ; attitude toward Catho- lics, 290 : protects Mary. 201 ; con- trol of the Church. 294 ; Spanish policy of. 204. 205 : war with Spain, 206-301 : Ireland under. 303 ; death, 303 ; the England of. 304

Ellandune. battle of. 16

Ely. founding of. 33

Emancipation Act, the, 549

Emma, wife of Ethelred. 37, 41. 43

Employers' Liability Act, the, 590

Empson. baron of the exchequer, 235

Enclosure Acts, the, of George lll.'s reign, 500

Encumbered testates Court. 564

KngaKement. the, 362. 363

English Church, reconstruction of the, 254 Company, the, 442 Language. Increased use of In the 14th

and 15th centuries, 173-176 Litany, the, 265 Succession, war of the. 434

Ennlskillen. siege of, 432

Eorl. the, 7

Erasmus. 237; Colloquy In Pilgrimages of, 247

Erskine. John, Earl of Mar, rising of, 466

Eacurlal. Treaty of the, see Bourbon Family (\)uipact

Essex. 8€c Devpreaux

p:8tampes. Thlbaut d'. 80

Etaples. Treaty of, 231

Ethelbert of Kent. Confederacy of, 12; accepts Christianity. 12 ; laws of, 13

F.thplburga. In Northumbria, 13

Fthelfleda 25

Ethelf rid/ the Devastator. 5, 11. 12, 13

610

IKDBX

Ethelgiva, 32

Ethelinffs, the, 32

Bthelreo, ealdorman of Mercia, 19, 24

the redeless, King of England, 36-42 Bthelrlc, 11

Bthelwulf. troubles of, with Danes, 18 Etheiwy, 59 Eugene of Savoy, commands Imperial

army, 449, 452, 455 Eustace of Boulogne, 50, 51

son of Stephen, 84 Evesham, battle of, 123. 124 Exchequer, Court of, see Courts, royal Excise Bill, the, 474, 475 Exclusion Bill, the, defeated, 407, 400 Eylau, battle of, 527

Factory Legislation, 540

Fairfax, Ferdinand, Lord, parliamentary general, defeated at Adwalton Moor, 352 Sir Thomas, at Hull, 353 : at Marston Moor, 355 ; commander-in-chief of parliamentary army, 358, 359 ; joins with other officers In presenting terms to Icing, 362 : in second civil war, 364 ; retirement of, 369

Falaise, Treaty of, 95

Falkirlc, battle of, 141

Fawkes. Guy and the Gunpowder Plot, 310, 311

Fenians, the. 582

Ferdinand of Aragon, 235, 237, 240 of Brunswick, General of Frederick

the Great, 490. 491, 402 II., chosen Emperor. 317 ; supports Thirty Years War, 320

Feudalism, introduced into England, 61. 02

Field of the Cloth of Gold. the. 241

Fifth Monarchy Men, the, 373. 389

Finch, Daniel. Earl of Nottingham, sup- ports Toieratlon Act, 430

Fire, the Great. 390

Firma hurghi, grant of. 101

First Fruits, see Annates

Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 253, 255

Fitzgerald, the, revolt. 263

Fitz-I'eter, Geoffrey, Justiciar, 00, 108. 114

Fltzroy. Augustus. Duke of Grafton, ministry of. 503-506

"Five Boroughs." the, 24

Five Mile Act. the, 302

Flambard, Ralph, justiciar of William II.. 70, 73

Flanders, alliance with Richard and John, 99, 108; ally of Edward III.. 106. 152; campaigns of Marlbor- ough in, 448. 451. 455 ; ace also Burgundy and Netherlands

Fleetwood. Cromweillan general, 385. 387

Flodden Field, battle of. 238

Florida, ceded to England, 493

Folk-land, 9

Folkmote, 6

Foikstone, battle off. 372

Fontenoy, battle of, 482

Forest Courts, the, 61

Forest Laws, the, 61 the New, 61

Forests. Charter of the, 114 ; confimied, 133-134

Forestallers, the, 161

Formigny, battle of, 206

Forster, William E., Elementary Educa- tion Act, 584 : Irish SecreUry, 501

Fortescue, Sir John, 311

Forty-two Articles, the, 273

Four Bills, the, 363

Fox, Charles James, the Liberal Act, 507; joins with North, 514; in Grenville mlnlst^. 527 : death. 528

Francis I., King of France, succeeds to French crown, 240 *. Invades Bur-

fundy, 241 : attitude toward Henry III., 256, 264 II., King of France, death, 288 II., Emne^'or, wars with France. 520, 522, 526; renounces Imperial title, 627 Philip, 516 Franciscans, the, 137, 138 Franco-Prussian War, 585 Frankpledge, the, 63 Frederick I., Emperor, 89

II., of Prussia, begins war of Aus- trian succession, 480 : in second Si- leslan war, 481 ; in Seven Years' war, 485-493 v.. Count Palatine of the Rhine, mar- ries Elizabeth Stuart, 315; elected King of Bohemia, 317 : defeated near Prague, 318 ; loses Palatinate. 320 William, elector of Brandenburg, 423 William of Prussia, declares war against French Republic, 519 ; wars with Napoleon, 526, 527 ; takes part in overthrow of Napoleon, 533. 534 Free Trade, advocated by Adam Smith, 515; by William Pitt. 615: furth- ered by Husklsson, 543 ; by Peel. 509, 560; by Gladstone, 578 French Revolution, early attitude of Great Britain, 519 ; progress of. 520 ; change In character of move- ment, 521 Frledland, battle of, 527 Fiobisher, 294, 300, 304 Fyrd. the ancient, 11, 20, 21 ; reorgan- ized by Henry II., 94 ; the ship, 24, 39, 40

Goois, 2 3. 4

(ialMard. Chateau, 99, 103

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winches^

ter, 252 ; chief adviser of Henry VIII.. 262; attacks English Bible,

20r> ; chancellor to Queen Mary, 276,

277 Garter, the Blue, 157 Gatton, a "rotten borough " 646 (rauDt, see John of Gaveston, Piers, favorite of Edward II.,

143 General Mortgage, the, 441 Geneva Award, the, 577. 586 Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, son of Henry

II., 92, 93

IKDEX

611

Qeoftrey, Plantagenet, son-in-law of Henry L, 78. 83, 84

George I., acceesion of, 458 : foreign policy of. 467. 468: death. 472 II., accession of. 472; supports Wal- poie, 473. 478 ; repudiates Oloster- seven. 490; death. 492 III., policy of. 492 : transition char- acter of reign. 492 ; politics of. 5U0. 501 ; relations to Pitt. 503 ; to Lord North, 506 ; personal rule of. 503- 514 ; Illness of. 531 : death, 540 IV., regency of, 531, 540 : unpopular- ity of, 540; reign of, 540-545; death of, 545 Prince of Denmark, husband of Anne. 426

German Unity, secured, 577

Gesiths, the, 7

Gibraltar, talcen by English, 450 ; failure of attack on, 513

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey. 304

Gild, the. 31 ; development of, 100

Gin Act. the. 475

Gladstone, William Ewart. 564 ; chan- cellor of the exchequer. 566, 567 ; spokesman of new Liberals, 578 ;

Srime minister, 582 ; reforms of. 82 : attitude toward Franco-Prus- sian War, 585 ; end of tirst minis- thy. 586 ; second ministry. 590 : at- titude toward Boer War. 592. 593: the risings in Ix>ndon. 595 : end of second ministry. 596 : third mlnis- trv. 596 : home rule, 597 : fourth ministry, 599.; retirement and death, 599

Glanville. Ranulf de. Justiciar of Rich- ard I.. 193

Glasgow, assembly of, 337

Gleucoe, massacre of, 434

Glendower. Owen, rising of, 191, 193

Gloucester, see Clare

Goderich. see Robinson

Godwin, earl of Wessex, 50, 51, 52

Goidels, 2. 3. 4

Goodwin, Francis. 311

Gordon, Charles George, in the Sou- dan. 594. 595

Gordon. George Hamilton, earl of Aber- deen. 564 : prime minister, 566 ; the Crimean war, 568

Gordon Riots. 508

Goree Island, taken by English, 490

Grace, Act of, 436

Graces, the. 334

Grafton, see Fitzroy

Graham. John, of Claverhouse, viscount of Dundee. 433. 434

Granada. Island of. ceded to England, 493

Grand Alliance, 446

Grand Remonstrance, the. 345, 346

Great Bill, the, 279

Great Britain, see Union, Act of

Greek Revolt, the, 542

Gregorv I., pope, Interested In English missions. 12

Gregory VH.. pope, 66

Orenvilie, George, ministrv of. 501-503: champions Wilkes. 505 ; disputed

election caaes transferred to com- mittee. 506 Grenville. William, Lord. Ministry of

all the Talents, 527-529 Gresham. Sir Thomas* 304 Grey. Lord Charles, prime minister, 546-

550 Grey. Henry, duke of Suffolk, rises

against Mary. 278 Grey, Lady Jane, proclaimed queen, 274 ;

death, 278 Gross-JUgersdorf. battle of. 488 Ground Game Act. the, 590 Guader, Ralph, earl of Norfolk, 67 Guesciln. Bertrand du. 166 Gunpowder Plot, the, 310-311 Gutlirum. Danish king, submits to At*

fred 19 Gyrth, son of Godwin.' 51, 56

Habeas Corous Act, the, 406 ; suspended, 439, 472. 538. 582

Haeretico Comburcndo, statute, 195

Hales Case, 417

Hales, Sir Robert, 178

Halldon Hill, battle of, 151

Halifax, see Montague and Saville

Hamilton, James, representative of Charles I. in Scotland. 337 ; beaten at Preston, 364

Hamilton, Kichard,^ besieges Londonder- ry, 432

Hampden. John. 331. 332; in short par- liament, 338, 342; attempt of Charles against, 347 ; in Civil war. 351. 354

Hampton Court Conference, the, 309. 310

Hanover, Convention of. 482

Hanover, the League of, 473

Hanover. House of, succeeds to English throne, 445

Hanover, separated from English crown, 551

Hardicanute. 46

Harfleur, siege of. 198

Hargreaves. James, invents ''spinning jenny.*' 495

Harley. Robert, earl of Oxford. 456, 466

Harold Hardrada of Norway. 53

Harold Harefoot, 46

Harold. Son of Sweyn, 41. 44

Harold, son of Godwin, 50. 51 ; king of England, 52-56

Harrison, parliamentary general, 373, 374. 376. 389

Hastenbeck. battle of. 488

Hasting. Danish leader. 24

Hastings, campaign of, 54-56

Hastings. Warren, governor-general of India. 507-508: trial of. 516

Hastings, William. Lord, captain of Cal- ais, put to death by Richard III., 221

Hatfield, battle at, 13

Hatfield, council of. 14

Havana, captured by English. 493

Havelock, Henry, in India. 572. 578

Hawkins. Sir John. 294, 300-304

Haxey, Sir Thomas. 186

Heads of the Proposals. 362

Hearth money abolished, 430

612

INDEX

Hengistdun, battle of. 18

Henrietta liarla, wife of Charles I., 321; intrigues of, 341, 343; at- tacked by parliament, 347, 359

Henry I., reign of, 72-78; character, 78, 70

Henry II., 78 ; succeeds to English throne, 84 ; quarrel with Becket, 85- 80; methods of taxation, 88, 80; death, 05

Henry III., minority reign of, 114, 115; assumes power, 116 ; reign o/, 116- 126 ; death, 126

Henry IV., early intrigues of, 154. 182, 183, 187 ; deposes Richard II., 188 ; policy of, 100 : wars with Scots and Welaflb, 100, 101 ; revolt of Percles, 101, 102; death, 104; importance of reign. 104-105 ; relations to Church, 105

Henry Y.. president of council. 103, 104 ; accession of, 106 : attitude toward

Sarllament, 106, 107 ; renews Hun- red Years' War. 107-100; marriage of, 100 ; death, 200

Henry VI., birth of. 200; crowned king of France, 2Q2 ; puts down Cade Re- bellion, 205; regency during first illness, 207. 208 ; beginning of Wars of Roses^ 208-214 ; second reign of 217, 218 ; death, 210

Henrv VII., overthrows Richard III., 222. 223; accession of. 224; char- acter of. 220 * puts down Yorkist risings. 230; French war. of. 231, 232 ; puts down Cornish rising. 233; despotism of, 234; foreign al- liances of, 235 : death. 236

Henry VIII., accession of. 236; policy of. 237; first ventures in , war, 238; alliances of, 230-241 ; relation to the Church. 243-245 : forces submla- slon of convocation, 248-250 ; mar- ries Anne Boleyn, 253 : suppresses the monasteries, 258, 250; relation to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 263 : debases coinage. 264, 265 ; death and character of. 266

Henry V.. the Emperor. 74

Henry VI., Emperor, 07

Henry IV., of France, 206, 305.

Henry of Huntington, 79

Henry. Prince, son of Henry II., of Eng- land. 00. 02, 93

Henry, Prince, son of James I., 315

Henryson. Robert, 227

Heptarchy, the kingdoms of the, 10

Herbert, Arthur, Lord Torrlngtoiv de- feated at Beachy Head, 435

Hereward, 59

Herrings, battle of the, 201

Hertford, see Seymour.

Hertford. Synod at. 14

Hexam. battle of, 215

Hicks Pasha. 594

Hlgden. Ralph, 173

High Commission, Court of, 286. 342, 417

Hill. Sir Rowland, postal reforms of, 557

Hochklrchen, battle of. 490

Hohenfrledburg, battle of 482

Hohenlinden, battle of, 552

Hohenstaufen, the, 117

Holdernesse. 484, 402

Holies, supports Eliot's resolutions, 329; takes part in civU war, 351

Holy Alliance, the, 541

Holy League, the, 238

Home Rule, see Ireland.

Homildon Hill, battle of, 101

Hongkong, becomes English possession, 557

House-carls, the, 45

Howard, Admiral Charles, commands English fleet of Elizabeth. 300

Howard; Catharine, Queen of Henry VIII., 262

Howard, John, efforts at prison reform. 517

Howard, Henry, ear! of Surrey, executed. 266

Howard, Thomas, duke of Norfolk, at Flodden, 238; attack upon Wolsey. 245 ; head of reactionary party. 262; attainted, 266; supports Mary, 274

Howe, Admiral, defeats French off Ushant, 510

Howe, General, Lord, In American war, 511

Ilubertsburg, the Peace of. 403

Hugenots, 200, 202 ; Influence of, in Eng- land. 460

Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln. 98

Hugh of Puiset, Bishop of Durham. Jas- tlclar of Richard I.. 06

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acting protector, 200, 203

Hundred and Hundredgemot, 8. 20, 31. 34

Hundred years' war. effect of. upon English life, 157-161 ; causes of, 152 ; first stage of, 152-164 : second stage of, 164-176; third stage of, 189-200: last stage, of. 200-213

Husklsson. William, in Liverpool minis- try. 540 ; reforms of. 643

Hyde. Edward. Earl of Clarendon, op- poses Root and Branch Bill. 343; chancellor of CSiarles II., 388-397

Iberians, the, 2

Impositions, the. 313, 342

Incident, the. 344

Income Tax, the, adopted by Pitt, 523; by Peel, 560

Independents, the, disputes with Pres- byterians, 357 ; offer terms to Charles I.. 363: assume control of government. 364

India. Pitt's Bill, 515; conquest of the native prices, 525; later advance of the English in, 562 ; the mutiny. 570-573 ; see also East India Com- pany.

Ine, early king of Wessex, 11

Inkerman, battle of. 568

Innocent III.. Pope, the quarrel with John, 105-107; Interferes between John and his barons. 111

Innocent XI.. Pope, favors. William of Orange against James II., 422

Instrument of Government. 371

I «>n<iuMt ot. 91 : John - - —^--' ■ IBT-

,J8: organised by Henry VII., __ , Benrj Till., the Poynlnfi Acta. 263: under RllisbcUi. 295: reyolt of. aOS; under Mootjoy and Cbl- cheslcr, 314: plnnUtlon ot Ulster, 314; Wentworlh In, 834; revolt of North, 345; durlnn the civil wars. 867 : SraC represented in psrlla ment, 3T6: Cromwell's adinlDlaCra- tlon of. 379 ; la the Reatoratlon. 893 : attempta to aupporC Jamei II.. 431-433: under Home Rale for eighteen yeara, 612 : effect or Freorh Revolution on. 520. B21 : the Bill ol tJnioD, G23 : the tithe war In. 648 : Poor-laws in. SD3. B54: Cbe Tithe Bill, 554; the Mu- nicipal Bill. e54: agitation for Home Rule. MO ; famrDe In, 064 : rrowtb of revolultonarj spirit. 565 : As Fenian outbreak. 081 : dlaeatab- ilsbment, 582 : the Land Act, 583 . tbe Land I<easue. 590 : the aeconC Land Act, 5au : the Invlnclblea and assasalnstlan of CaTendlib. 591 ;

, Cromwell I an General, 36

ti6B Iron, production of In England In IStL

century. 497 Ironaidea, otganlEed by Cromwell. S54 liabeiia. gneen of Edward II.. plota ol,

148, 149 1 death, 191

. BdceeulOD, 418 : bopeleaa

u». „I their cause In ITIR. 463 :

rising of 1715. 486 ; end of. 483 ;

lee Tory party.

.Jamaica, lelied by Cromwell, 881; tradL'

of in 18tb century, 4T1 Jamea I., of England. scceiBloti to throne of Scolland. 201 : to BngllsL throne, 307 : character of, 307, 308 : attitude toward Purltana. 300. 310 toward CalhoUca, 310, 311 ; towa--'' pttrlLameDt. 311. 312, 314 ; poll

of. SIB, 31

Ireland. 314 : foreign pollc

. 316:

1 th. yeara of reign,

James I., of Scotland, captured by I

>n:>.>. jMo , uiiiiKcu >w Tudor prineen. 236 : falls at Flodden, 238 lam en V,, ot Scotland, defeated at " way Moas. 263.

Duke of Honmonth, iec Hon-

lames franda Edward, the Pretender, 421 ; proclaimed by Louis XIV„ 446 : attempts to regain crown, 466,

eatown, Bettlement of, 335 Jargeau, battle of, 202 Jsrrow, fonndlnz ot achool of, IE, 18 Java, taken by Engllrii, S19 Jeffreys. Judge, attacks the Charters.

411, 412; presidea st the DIondy

AislieB, 416; president of tbe Ee-

clertastlcsl Commlsaloo, 417, 424 ;

Bight of, 42S Jens, battle of. 527 Jenklnson. Eobert, Lord Liverpool, prime

minister, 531 ; refonna ot, 038, S39;

retirement of, 544 Jennings, Sarah. Lady Marlborough,

447 ; rapture wltb Anne, 458 Jermyn. Henry, favorite of Jamea II.,

Jesuits, peraecuted by Ellial>et1], 295,

JewB, the. under Henry II.. 89 : Edward I., 130, 131 : permitted to return to England by Cromwell, 384 ; un- successful attempt to secure nat- ural iiatlon of, 483 Joan of Arc, career ot. 201, 202 John, King ot England, plota against

with his barons. 109-112 ; death, 113

Jobn at France, succeeds to French Crowik. 162 : continues Hundred Yesrs' War, 163, 164: dlea In ex- ile, 165

John of Gaunt, tee LancMter

Jonenn. Iten. 305

Judicature Act, 685

Junius letters, the, 505

Junto, the. 439. 444. 456

Justlces-ln^yre. first appointed. 87

the Dutch war, 401 : debarred bv Teat Act. 402; attempt to eiclud" from succession. 407. 409. 410; re- stored to office. 412 : accession of. 414- J*?'""'"^ "' i3l9satlBfactloE . 418: attack upon the church. 417- prepares for reslitance, 418 ; Dec- laration ot Indulgence. 410: grow- Ing sentiment ot opposition to. 423 424: retires before Wllllaio of Or ange. 425-427 : In Ireland, 431-433 : death of. 446

Han

t of In Britain, I

Kallsch. Treaty of, 838

Kashgll. battle of, b04

Kay, Jobn. invents dying shuttle, 495

Kenllworth, Dictum. 125

KllllecraDkle,

, Statute of, 187, 282

611

Knox, John, Bcottlah refotlDcr, 280, 2B7- Kuoersdorf, battle ot, 4IKI

Ltbourer^ Statute o(, 160, 161 ; ITT,

1TB LacT, Robert de, TS. 74 La Hogue, battle off, 436 L^amb, WlltLspi, Tiarount Helboume, In

tbe Qnj mlnlitr; , 546 : prlm« mlo-

liter, BeO-BGS Lambert, parllimentarj geoeral, 8TQ :

aupporta tbe Instrument of OoTeiii-

ment, 3TT, 883; eipeli the Rump.

38B : Imprl«ODed. S88 i KenttnceA 1u

life ImprlsoDineDt, 8M Lambetb, Treaty of, 114 LanciHter, council of, B^-'■-' Lancaiter. Jdba of Gi

faclloD of barong i_ .

acd III., ieT;_cflmpBlgn In Fi

Lllbntlie, "Fre«bOTli John." 867 Limerick. Treaty ot. 488 LIdmId. the Fair ci lU LiTeriHKil, I"

of, ibollHhea, 842

... ..u, , ,,„...jiiilpn In F' "

ipelled (rota

170;

Wycllt, 171; attempt

crown of Caatlle, 182 ; retam lo

England. 184: nnpopularllv nr.

180: death, 187

Lad raster, Tbamsa, earl ot. opposes tL<-

- -Edwaril 11., 143, J44 :

ilattatlou, 146 ; fall of.

Lantr

archblihop of Canlerbur;, fir,.

LBUKCon. Stephen, archblahop ot Cantrr- ^ury, lOS : supports Uagna CbarU. 108, 109: auEpendcd. Ill: supporin regeacT ot Fdmbrolie. llS; deadi. 134

Latliapr. Hugh. biBhop of Ely, resIcUE. 202: dfath. 280

Laud. William, archbishop of Csntt-r- bury, reformB of, 32T. 332, 333 : n' forma In Si'otlRDd. 336, 337; fnll

Lawrence, Sir Henry, at Lufknow! 57 Lelceater, »ee Dudley and Montlort Leighton. Dr.. petlerou of, agalnat Epia

244, 21. Ijeofrlc, earl of Ucrcla. 50 LeofwtD, son of Godwin of Wesser, B2,

Lea tip. Alexander, commanded Smla li^ nishops' Wars, 337 : made earl of Leven, 344

Leslie. David, servea with Fairfax si MarsCon Moor, 355: defeata Moii trose. 350: defeated by Cromwell nc Dunbar. 300 : at Worcester, .170

Levellers, (he, Inaiirrectlon ot, 380. B-lT

578 : disruption of the, 1507

LI«enslDg Art, tbe. 438

Sir'*

. . siege ot, 432 London. Treatlea, of. 240. 542 lionEchamp. William, of, justiciar «(

Richard 1., BS Longs word, William, earl of Sallsburr,

107. 112 Loo, Declaratloo of. 425 Lorda, appellaaC, the. 183. 184. 186 "Lose-Coat Field." battle ot, 480 Lost with lei. battle of. 350 Louis VI. of France, war of, with Beaiy

Loala VII. of Prance, relations to Heor

II.. 84, 00 Louis VIII. ot Fraoce. sopporta baron

against John, 112 j retires froc

England, 114 Louis IX. of France, awards tbe Ulse

ot Amiens 121 Louis XL. of France, supports Warwick

agalnat Edward IV,, 217 : accepts

Treaty ot Picon iBni, 219 Louis XII. wars with Henry VIIL. 238;

marriage with Mary Tudor. 238 Loula XIII. of France, relations to

Charles I.. 321. S22, 324 Louis XIV, of France, 3BB ; "the War

of Devolution." 899: secret Ireallea

James II,. war against tbe League ot Augsburg, 421 ; quarrel with Pope. 432; oSenda James II.. 423;

Partition Treaties, war of the Spaulrti succeasion. **a, 440.453, 4E5 ; the Treatlea ot Utrecht 457

IjOuIb XV. ot France, relations to Eng- land. 468. 476, 480--483; 485.493

Louis XVIII. ot France, restoration of. 535

Lovel, Lord, rising of. 220, 230

I-oyal Aasoclntlon. the. 430. 440

I.ucknow. siege of, BTI„ B72

Lucy, Richard de. Justiciar of Henry II., 85. 03

Luneville. Peace ot 522

LuBlgnan, Guy of. 94, 96

Luslgnana. the, and Henry III., HB

Machinery, social re«ulla of use of. 496.

407 Macons Rill No. 2, 631 Madrid. Treaty of, 482 Mttgna Charta, tec Charter ifagflum ConciUam, under William I..

63; change In cbaracter of. 76, 76:

IHDEX

615

Magnus Intereursus, 232

Mahdi. rising of tlie, 594

Mahon, see Stanhope

Maidstone, battle of, 363

Maiwan, battle of, 502

Majuba Hill, battle of, 593

Malaga, battle off, 451

Malakoff, storming of the, 569

Malcolm, King of Scots, does homage to Canute, 44

Malestrolt, truce of, 154

Mallgnants, the, 873, 887

Malmsbury, William of, 79

Malory, Sir Thomas, 227

Malplaquet, battle of, 455

Malta acquired by Great Britain, 524

M<Ut6te, the, 134

Manchester, see Montague

Mandeville, Geoffrey de, 82, 84

Manila, captured by British, 493

Manor, the, 61

Mansfield, chief Justice, ih the Wilkes; case, 505, 507 ; famous decision in slave- case, 517, 518

Manufacturing. under Anne, 460 ; growth of during the time of the Georges, 404, 405

Mare, Peter de la. speaker of th6 good parliament, 160, 170

Marengo, battle of, 522

Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI., 203 ; her influence, 207 ; part in Wars of the Roses, 208-213; Joined by Warwick, 217; defeated at Tewkesbury, 218

Margaret of Burgundy supports pretend- ers, 230-232

Margaret "the Maid of Norway," 130

Margaret Tudor, marriage with James IV. of Scotland, 236

Maria Theresa, designated for the Aus- trian succession, 473 ; in war of Austrian succession, 480-482 ; in seven years' war, 485-490

Marignano, battle of, 240

Marlborough, see Churchill and Jennings

Marprelate Tracts, the, 801

Marshall, William, earl of Pembroke, 109, 112; 114, 115

Marston Moor, battle of, 3551

Martin, member of the Rump, 373

Mary, daughter of James II., marriage. 402 ; becomes Joint sovereign of England, 427, 428; death, 437

Mary, Queen of England, succession of, 274 ; policy of, 275 ; marriage of, 278 : restores England to Papal allegiance, 279 ; persecutions of, 280 : death and character of, 283

Mary, Queen of Scots, birth of, 263 : marriage of, 267 ; succession of, 288 : deposition of. 291 ; plots against Elizabeth. 203: death, 208

Mary of Guise, marriage with James V. of Scotland. 263

Matilda, of Scotland, wife of Henry I.. 73

Matilda, dauGfhter of Henry I., 74, 77, 78, 81-83

Maurice. Prince, 350, 352

Maximilian, Emperor, 235. 238. 240

McCarthy, Justin, defeated at Newtown Butler, 432

Medehamstede, founded, 33

Mehemet All, revolt of, 556

Melbourne, see Lamb ^ ^ *„ •

Mercian Confederacy, rise of the, 11 18, Bee also Off a and Penda

Methodist movement, the, 478, 479

Methuen Treaty, 475

Milan Decree, the, 529

Militia Bill, the, 348

Milled edge, adopted. 440

Millenary Petition, the, 309

Milton, John, 844, 388

Minden, battle of, 491

Monasteries, the, under Henry I., 79; suppression of, 258-259

Monk. George, duke of Albemarle, par- , liamentary general, 367 ; In Scot- land, 370-380 : serves at sea against the Dutch, 372 ; restores the Ix>ng Parliament, 887 ; part in restora- tion. 887. 888 ; made duke of Albe- marle, 388 ; disbands the army of the Protectorate, 389 ; in the second Dutch war, 305

Monmouth, James, duke of, in Scotland, 408 : insurrection of, 411, 414 ; death, 415

Monopolies and patents, complaints against under Elizabeth, 302 ; at- tacked under James, 818 ; renewed form of under Charles I., 330

Mons Grauplusi, battle of, 8

Montague, Charles, Whig statesman, 436 ; his resolutions for restoring government credit, 440, 441, 444

Montague, E3dward, Lord Kimbolton, earl of Manchester, parliamentary general, 351. 353, 365 ; quarrel with Cromwell, 357, 358 Montcalm, French governor in Amer- ica, 489, 491 Montereau, mutiny at, 198

Montfort, John de. claimant to Duchy of Brittany, 154. 162, 165 Simon de, earl of Leicester, leader of English barons, 118 : quarrel with Gloucester. 119, 120; part in Barons' War, 121, 122; death at Evesham, 124 Montrose. Earl of. royalist general In

Scotland, 356, 359 Moore, Sir' John, in Spain, 530 Morcar, earl of Northumbria. 53, 54, 59 Mordaunt, Charles, earl of Peterborough, 451

More, Sir Thomas, humanlcrt and chan- cellor of Henry VIII., 237, 247; made chancellor, 247 ; persecutes reformers, 251 ; refuses to support the apostasy of Henry VIII.. 253, 254 ; character and death. 255 Mortimer. Edmund, earl of March, lead- er of faction of barons at court of Edward III., 167 Edmund, captured at Brynglas. 191 Edmund, earl of March, plot to pro- claim him king. 197. 198 Roger, border lord, foe of Simon de Montfort, 122, 123

. r of Blcbard II., 182, ___ Mortimer's Crow, battle ol, 212 Uortlmer-s Hole, ISO MortmalQ, Statute ot, 185 ; inipeiided,

28U HortoD, JobD, BI*bop ol Blj,

Hurra;, Bir Andrew,

141, 142 Muscovy Compinr, the, S04 Muswlburr" - ^-"- —

ot, 2d I MutlDf Act, the. 480

■U WBlUce,

'^nWe "cTeogh, battle

or, 3

citlon

[, 416

,, ,„ Bonaparte

III. In CrImeBD nar, 568. 669 i Oralnl

affair. 574; Interterea in Italj. 076

Napoleonic wars, relation ot to Strug-

glen of eighteenth eentur;. S36 :

cause of ecoDDmlc dlBtreaa tollow-

Naeeby.' battle ot, 35S Nalal, roloDlzatlon of. 562 Nallonal Debt. tonndlDg of tbe, 436 Navarlno, battle of, G42 Navarre te. battle of, 166 Navigation Act. the. 371: renewed. 895; iDttueDce of. .^144 : the Ian of. 565 Nel9UQ. Admiral, 522, 524 ; at Trafalgar,

370. 873; to Charlea II.. 3U5-300 : to James II.. 412-42S : for alliance witb England see the several tuc- cetiMa wars ot tbe eighteenth cen-

Nevllle. CIceIr, wife of Rlcbard of York,

207 Rli^arc), earl of Salisbury, supports

York during tbe Wars ot tbe Roses,

208. 213

"the KIni

2I.'>. 217; dentil. 21S Neville's Cross, battle of. 150 " I Amaterdarn becomes a Britlsb pos-

Newl

. 305

Newbury, battles of, 353, 357

Newcastle, tee Pelham

Newcantle platform, the. 090

\ew Kn eland, trr, Amerira

New Mndel. Ordinance creating the.

357: organization ot. .ISS; quarrels

with tbe Rump. 30O, 861

Mew Orleans, battle of, SS3 NewtOD, JobiL 4T& New SCrle, adopted. 488 New York, named, 890 i Tetaken bj tiM Dnteh, uOl ; tee also Mew Amattr-

New Zealand, colonlied, S82 Nlcbolaa I, of Russia, thn Onak Re- volt, 642: tbe Crimean War, sei:

death, 669 Nigel, bishop at Ely, 86 Nonrert stance^ 8 Ml.Uie, 4""

I Wll-

rmand;, relattona to Bthelred. 8T, SB, 41 ; to Edward tbe Cmfeaaot, 4B, 52; wars of William II., Id. 10: uulon of, wltt BulBD^ ~- ""

of, Witt BnglBDd, 71, 13; )f Henrj I., la. 74. 75; lost lin, 103; won bj kenn V.,

198: renlned France.^04, 2

tlon with Foi. 010 : grants bomt rule to Ireland, 012 : tall ot 673 NortbamptOD, aaalae of, 03 peace of. 145 battle of, 211 Nortlimen, tbe, In England, 17, 18: t*

Northumberland, *«e Dudler aail Pei«T ""-"■ — >■-'-- ContedM'acj, 11. 12

I England, 1ST: * ■ 'T, 681

Dates, Titu% conaplraey ot 404, 405, 418

IVcflsional Conformltj Bill, the, de- feated by MarlburouKh. 440. 468; r"[j<..aled. 468

O'Ciiiiiii?]]. Daniel, agitator tor Irlib froedom, 645. 600, 601

Odo, ar,hhlaiiop of Canterburv, 83, 33 brother of William I., 68

nffa. king of Uercla. II. 13. 18

liIilcQHiIe. Jobn. SmtA Cobham, IM !. revolt of, SOS

MI.. Implicated in

Oirord, FroTlBlonB of, 117, 121

llQlTeralty u(. beglDDlDga of the, E

growth Id 13tli ceDtarj, 138 see Uarlej, and Vere

ralmecsCDH. gee Temple fandulf, l-apal legate, 106, lOT. Ill I'spaL Butborlcy. unlveraallr recognlied, 246 : preparation uf EngLaod for reTulI from, -Ma, 247: tee alio un- der William I.. Ueurr 11., John, id Wyclir

FarsoDa, Robert, Jetnit mlaalotiar]', Ut- PartltloD Treaties,

riot King, mt the liea of «, Bollug-

rloCa, tbe, name of the new Torj partT In IS 111 ceatunr, 475 Paul I., of Russia, friend of Bomparte,

leader of Csnadlan national :

Pavla. battle of, 241

r_ ant Revolt, the, 177-179

Pedro. tHe Cruel, ally of Edward HI.,

Matthew, Arehblahop of CanteTbur;, 284, 294 1 'aril anient, lucreaae In aetiilt; under Kdward 111.. 172: Ealna right r~ coQflrm mlnliters, 105 ; develonmei of, under Henry V., 100, 1U7 ; loai, Independeni^e under Edward IV., 21U;.Ellialieth-8 dealingsi " """ quarrel with Jamea 1., ___. __ covers power of impeachment, 818;

■dmInlstratloD of, 551;

ful attempt of 1830, 65B ; seeond admlDlBt ration of. B58-Se0 ; attitude toward Irish question. 5tKJ, 661; abolishes Corn Laws. 563 ; death.

iwth or. 463, 464

501 : reform agitated. KUU ; debates flrst published. 607; reform agita- tion renewed. 539. 546 ; the Reform Bill of 1832. 547; the second Ke-

tbe First ConTentloD. 887. 8BS the Second Canvenllon. 427, 430. 43.'> the Good, 169, 170 the Long, 340 ; reforms of the, 342 ; carries on civil war. 34S-364 ; ei-

fuliloh of the Freibylerian malor- ly by Colonel Pride. 384 ; the Bump tries and eiecutes Charles 364. 365 ; refuses to dissolve.

303:

"30ft^37*4; eiipctled "

'ends, 12, 18 'enn. William. 410 People-s_ Charter, the, 555

sgalnst lleurr

Henry, earl of North nnberland. rla.

Ina against Henry IV., 191-192 Rslph, win* Neville's Crosa, 166

Thomas, earl of Northumberland, ploCa ngolnit Elizabeth. 2S1 Perpendicular stjle, the. THi I'erpetnatlon lllll. the. 373 Perrera, Alice, favorite at court of Ed- ward 111.. 100. 109, 170 Perth. Arllcli-s <i(. 336 resaro, bailie of, 400 Peterboroufih. ate Hedehamstede Peterloo, ninSBacrc <if, ^3'J Peter the -nrcnl if IliisBla 4fii>

the Hermit. 94 Peter's Pence. 66 ; suspended by Henrj

. „, by

Cromwell, 374 ; flrst restoration oi. 385 : second expulsion and restors- tlon of. SSfl. 387 : calls back ma- jority. 387 : dissolves ty Its own act. 387 the Nominated or T.lttle, 376 the Pensionary, see Cavalier Parlla-

the Reform. 248-2,52 the Short, 338

the Wonderful or Uerclleas. 183 Parnell. Charles Stuart. Irish stat man, 691

Petltlonera, the. iot Petre, Edmund. 417 Petty, William. I^ird Shelbourne, prima

618

INDEX

war with E}dward ill., 153-lCO; death, 162

Philip II. of Spain, 276 ; marriage with Afary Tudor, 278; urges Mary Into French war, 282 ; relations to Elisa- beth, 286, 294, 296, 297-300 ; death, 301, 306 III. of Spain, accession or, 306 iV. of Spain, effect of death In pre- cipitating the war of Devolution, 390 V. of Spain, relations to England. 445, 446, 452, 456

PhiUlpa, queen of Edward III., 166

PhlUphaugh, overthrow of Montrose at, 359

Philips-Norton, battle of, 415

Phoenix I*ark murder, the, 591

PlcQuigny, Treaty of, 219

Plcts. Inroads of. 4

Pilgrimage of Grace, the. 267

Pinkie Cleugh, or Musselborough, battle of, 267

IMrna. battle ot 488

Pitt, William, earl of Chatham, 486; conducts Seven Years* war, 486- 489; policy of. 489, 490; second ministry of, 503-506; last days of, 514 William, minister of George III.. 515, 516 ; reforms of, 518 ; foreign policy of, 518 ; attitude toward FrcDch Revolution, 521 ; conducts wars against Napoleon, 521-523, 525-527; death, 527

Pius v., bull of. against Elizabeth, 292

Placemen's Hill, 403, 404

Plague, the Great. 396

IMassey. battle of. 489

Poitiers, battle of. 162

Pole. Geoffrey de la, turns state's evi- dence, 258 Henry de la, Lord Montague, plots

against Henry VIII.. 257. 258 John de la. joins Simnel's rising. 2.30 Reginald de la, cardinal, his eccles- iastical unity. 2.58 : attainted, 258 ; return to F^ngland. 277 ; papal legate at Mary's court, 279-284 ; death, 284 Michael de la. earl of Suffolk, favor- ite of Ridiard II.. 182. 183 William de la, duke of Suffolk, de- feated at Jargeau. 202 : councillor to Henry VI.. 203: attacked by parliament, 204 ; death, 204

Polish Succession, the war of the. 470

Poor Law, the. of Anne, 459 ; amend- ment act, 549

Port Manvin, acquired by English, 457; lost by Byng. 486

Porteous Riots, the. 475

Portland, ftce Bentinck

Portland Bill, battle of, 372

Portugal, the Methuen Treaty with. 475 : liberal government of. pro- tected by England. 541

Postal reforms, 557

Pofit nati, the. 312

Poynlngs. Sir Edward, in Ireland, 2.32

Praemunire, Statute of, 168. 185. 249

Prague, battle of, 818

Prayer-book, the first, of Edward VU 269, 273: the second, 273; abol- ished, 276

Presentment of Englishry, 63

Press, freedom of the, estabiUAied, 438

Pressburg, Peace of, 527

Preston, battle of, 364, 466

Pride's Purge, 364

Primrose, Archibald Philip, ear! of Rosebery, successor of Giadfltone, 606

Principe8, the, 6

i*rlntlng, by movable type, introduced Into England, 227

Prison reform In England, 516, 517

Protection for Life and Property Act, the, 591

Provlsors, Statute of, 168, 185

Prynne, William, attacks »tage and is punished by Star Chamber, 333. 342

Puliln, Robert, at Oxford, 80

Punjab, annexed to Englls(h posseasions In India, 662

Purltana, 290, 293, 808, 309, 310, 327, 332, 343, 349, see also separatists, nonconformists and dissenters

Pym, John, parliamentary leader. 319; In the Short Parliament, 338; at- tacks Strafford, 341, 345; Im- peached by Charles I., 347 : raises the train bands of London, 352; death, 354

Pyrenees, Treaty of the, 386, 434

Quakers, persecutions of, 391, 392

Quebec, capture of, 491

Queen Anne's Bounty. 450

Queen Anne's War, 485

Queen's Colleges, established in Ireland,

561 Quia Emptoree, statute of, 128 Quiberon Bay, battle, 491

Radcot Bridge, battle of, 183, 184

Raedwald of East Anglla. 12. 13

Railroads, the first, opened In England, 554

Raleigh. Sir Walter, 302, 304, 305, 300, 316. 317

Ralph of Chester, 83

Ramlllies, battle of, 451

Rapparees. the. 393

Reciprocity of Duties Bill, the, 543

Recolnage Act, the, 440

Recusants, 246. 321. 322

Reform, parliamentary, 546-647, 648, 579, 696

Reformation, the. early plhases In Eng- land. 247; In Scotland, 287

Regulating Act, the. 507

Relief Act, the, 508

Rcligioais, statute de, 128

Rescissory Act, the, 394

Restoration, the Stuart, see Charles II.

Resumption Bill, the. 444

Retford, battle of. 12

Revocation, the Act of,

Richard I., quarrels with Henry II.. 02, 93 ; succession of, 95 ; crusade ot

IKDBX

619

95-07; wars with France, 08; death, 90

Richard II., made heir to crown, 170; in reasant Uevolt, 178; defies parlia- ment. 183, 184 ; assumes Koyern- ment, 184 ; extrayagance of, 185, 18G: trouble with Ireland, 187; deposed by Henry IV., 188; death, 100 III., supports Edward IV., 214; schemes for the succession, 220 ; reign of, 221-223; death at Bos- worth, 223

Richard of Cornwall, 118, 122

duke of York, secures control of gov- ernment, 207, 208; second protecto- rate, 209, 210 : claims crown, 211 ; slain at Wakefield, 211

Ridley, Nicholas, bishop of Rochester,

Sart In tne Prayer-book, 269; eath, 280

Ridolfl plot, the. exposed, 293

Rights, the Bill of. 430

Rlpon, Truce of, 340

Rlzzlo. David, murder of, 291

Robert I., Bruce, king of Scotland, ris- ing of. 142 ; successes of, 144, 145 ; king of Scotland, 145

Robert of Gloucester, supports Matilda, 79 83

Robert of Jumleges, archbishop of Can- terbury, 50, 51

Robert of Normandy, son of William, 68; disputes succession to English crown, 70-74

Roberts, General, 592

Robinson, Frederick, viscount Goderlch, In Liverpool ministry , 540; re- forms of, 543 ; prime minister, 644 ; In the Grey ministry, 546

Rochelle, battle of. 169; Buckingham's expedition to, 324, 325

Roches, Peter des, bishop of Winchester, 114. 116

Rockingham, see Wentworth

Itodney, admiral, 491, 493

Roger, archbishop of York, 90

Roger, bishop of Salisbury, Justiciar of Henry I., 75, 83, 85

Roger, Breteull, earl of Hereford, revolt of. 67

Rogers, John, death, 280

Rooke. admiral, 450

Root and Branch Bill, 344, 345

Rosebecque, battle of, 181

Rosebery, ace Primrose

Roses, War of the, see under Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III.

Rossa, O* Donovan, Irish agitator, 582

Rossbach, battle of, 489

Rottierham, Thomas, archbishop of York, 221

Roundheads, the. 353

Rous. Francis. 376

Rowton Heath, battle of. 859

Royal Exchange, founded, 304

"Rule Britannia,** first appearance of, 477

Rump, see Parliament

Rupert, Prince, nephew of Charles V.. takee p^rt to civil War, 351, 352.

355, 859, 867, 870; in the Dutch war, 895

Russell, Admiral Edward, wins La Hogue, 435 ; member of the Junto, 439

Russell, John, duke of Bedford, joint ministry with Grenvllle, 501-502

Russell, John, earl, supports reform measures of Grey ministry, 546; becomes prime minister, 564 ; beat- en by Palmerston, 566 ; in Aber- deen ministry, 566 ; succeeds Pal- merston, 578

Russell, Lord William, Whig leader, 411

Russia, war with Turkey, 586-588

Rye House Plot, the. 411

Ryswick, Peace of, 441

Sacherevell*s case, 456

Saladln Tithe, the, 94

Salisbury, see Neville and Cecil, also Roger, bishop of

Sampford Courtenay, l>attle of, 270

Sancroft, William, archbishop of Can- terbury, one of the seven bishops, 420; deposed, 431

Sanquihair Declaration, the, 409

San Stefano, I*eace of, 587

Santa Crus, battle of, 381, 882

Saratoga, battle of. 511

Sautre, William, first English heretic to be burned, 195

Savllle, Sir George, introduces Catholic Relief Act, 508

Saville, George, marquis of Halifax, op- poses Exclusion Bill, 409, 410, 418; supports William III., 426

Saxons, early conquests of, 4

Saye, Lord, murdered in Peasant Rerolti 205

Schism, the Great, 181, 246

Schmalkalden. the League of, 261

Schomberg, Marshal of William III., killed in Ireland, 432

Scone, stone of, brought to Westminster by Edward I., 140

Scotland, early relations to England, 01, 98, 95 ; renews homage to John, 106 ; warn for Independence of, 139-145; time of Henry VIII., 263; reforms of Laud in, 836, 337; In the Civil Wars, 337-339; first rep- resentation in English parliament, 876; Cromweirs administration of, 880 ; restoration in. 894 ; revolution in, 433 ; union with England. 453 ;

garliatnentairy representation raised, 95 : see also Picts, Bruce, and Stuart

Scriptures, the. Wycllf s translation of, 174 : translation of forbidden, 194 ; translated by William Tyndale, 251 ; the "Great Bible." accepted, 260 ; King James Version of, 313

Scutage, 85

Sebastopol, siege of, 568. 569

Sedgemoor, battle of. 415

Self-denying Ordinance, the, 357

Senlac, see Hastings

Separatists, tlie, under Elisabeth, 30?^ migration of, 355

8«p4l' Matin;, lee UDder India Sept«nDlaI Apt. the. 4BT 8«t(lenient. t

Bejmour, Admiral, bombarded AlexBD-

drla, &B4 Seymour, Jane, Qneen of HearT VIII.,

260 StjDKiur, Edward, earl of Hertford,

duke of Bomerset. 26G ; protector,

267 ZTl : death, 2T2 Seymour, Lord Henry, eommandi dlvl-

Blon of BnsIlBb fleet ag&init the

Armada, 300 Bharieibury, lee Cooper ShakHpere, William. 305 8h el bourne, tee Petty SherlDmuIr, battle of, 136 SberlllB, Instituted, 10, 20; the Inquest

Ship-money, levlea ot, 330-331; de- clared IlleEal, 342 Sblre. origin ol. 11, 10, 20, 34

Shrewsbiiry, battle of. 102 UldiDouth. 8re Addlngton Hlcloey, AlRernoo, 41'

St. Jobn, lllanu of, taken by Enstlih, Bt. Mary's Clyat, battle ot 270

titamp

Btandard,

Stanhope,

tbe, 502

ftttle of the, 82

amea, earl, nliilatry of, 468-

Blenhope, Philip Donner,

terdeld. 483 Stanley. Edward, earl oI Derhy, tai

, - - /, tavon

sliyery, S4B ; prime mlnlater,

SUea

I, 480 481

..._nsl, r^mbert. iao Blnop(. battle ot, 568 Bli Arts. tbe. of aidmnutb, BSO Bli Articles, the, 260. 231 266, 287 Bl«»ery. African, Introduced Into Amer- ica. 304 : agitation lor abolition of trade, 519: abol'' * ' —

Slays, buttle dtj 153

Smltl

mnuuH. ^44

1 League and Covenant, 354

Solway Mobs, battle of. 203 Somerset, see Beymour Boudan. Insurrection In, 504. 505 "" "■" "a Company, the, 460. 470

KlogB. Armada Spectator, tbe. 462

Speoi^r. Henry de, bishop of Norwich, Spencer. Robert, earl of Sunderland

adviser of James II., 417; of W11-

Ham III.. 438 Spencer. Charles, earl of Sunderland

In Stanhope ministry. 408 ; Involved

In South Sea Scandal. 470 Spenser. Edmund, the Faerie Ovecnc

305 w»<^<.n..

Sports, the Declaration of, 332

Bt Albans. Council at. 107; flmi battle

of. 200; second battle of. 212 St. Rartliotomen's Day, massacre of. St. nrlce'a Day. massacre of, 38 St. Reorge's Fields, maswicre of, 504 ^*- ■i"n'''.S,*''K'-. 'll™'";' Ro'lnitbroke.

3nd admlnlatratlon otB74;

Stan ley. Sir Wllllani, Bapporls Henry VII., 223, 224 '

im. use of Id England In 18th een- ?Ie. Rlcbanl, 461

Inklrk. battle ot, 43S iihen, reign of. 80-84 Stephenson^ George. Inventor. 864

" ■■ Robert, viscount Caatlereaah.

H31 MO -:*. "*"■

arcl

93. 65 Stoke, battle of. -230 Stop of the F- ■■

Strongbow, «ee Clare

Stuart, see under names of aoverelgna

Arabella. 300

Heory, Lord Daroley. 201 John, earl of Bute, 482, 001 .Subinfeudation, 62 Succession, tbe Act of. 253 Suez CansI, tbe. 503 Suffolk, »ee Pole and Grey Sunderland, see Spencer Supremscy, the Act o(. 254, 285 Su rajah Dowlah, 486, 480 Surrey, tee Howard Suttee, abollahed. 662 "weyn Forkbeard. war of. 38. 41, 43 wern. son of Godwin. 50. 51, S7 wljt. Jonathan. 401

wynford, Catharine, wife of John of Gaunt, ISG

Talbot. Sic John. 202. 206

"icbard. earl of Tyrconnel. 417: dep- uty In Ireland, 431 : admlolatratlnD ol, 433 ...jnts. Ministry of all the. S2T Tangier, becomes British posaeaalou, SOS Taller, the. 482 ~ foundlDE of, 'i

member of Liverpool ministry, S40: In the Grey ministry, B46. 5,16 ; foreign policy of, £56 ; In Ui« Ma»

Id the -Ab«T-

GSU: In the Orilal ' Httklr. GT4 ; m^ and mlalatry of. STG ; Id Crimean war. GTU : attitude tooard Ameri- can Civil oar, BTS: deatb, ST7 Temple, BIr William, minister to the iNetberlanda, SOU ; hla plan of goy- ernment, 406; jolna countrj pare;.

rachebraj inncrie, i

', 74

ii:s[ ^I't. the, 402. 41T: madiaed, 044 . Tewkeshurj. battle o(, 218 Teiel, battle olT the, 401 Thamea, the. 20

Theiibald. archblabop of CanterburT, 85

Tlieudure, archbUbop ot Canterbarj,

work tor earl; Engllah Cburch, 14.

Tblrty-alne Artlclea, the. 290 Tblrt; yean' war. outbreak of. 317 Tbomaa. duke ot Gloucester, leader of

tactluD at Court ot Bicbard II.,

1S2. IBS Tbnga, broken up Id India, 663 Thurklll. Danish leader. 40, 41 Tlberlaa. battle of, 94 TlroDderagB. battle ot 490 TIenlsln. treaty of, ST4 TUalt. Peace of, 627 Tltbe. the Irish wsr, 648; Um Com-

mutstlou Act. E61 ToIeratlOD Act. the. 430 ~ • e of, 4f)3

■■Tori I

■ the,

: Ire

ilrth of. 404. 407, 408: nder James II., 413-41S : Inst king. 418-421 ; In-

□nder Wllllani III., 43B, attitude of, toward war

of. under George III.. 601-S13 : re- 'orms of. S3B ; change In pallrr of. •40: passes lolo Conaervatlve ■arty. BSD: nnal dleruptlon of tbe. >n9: fee alM Jacobites. Court Party

Charles. ADierlcan Dntl?a

TrBfal)(ar. battle of, I

'b. no3 : paaaea under Brltlib Irol, BQ3 : lee alio Boer war lara. rlenrj of, king of Castile,

■nnlat Act. the, flOO; the second. 'Ut; tbe act of William III„ 437

^ripio aiiiaucT, tne, ovv i

boot mlalstrT, 46B ;

Pllt, 618-B20 Trojea, Treaty of, 1 Tudor, Heart, ear

Henry VII., of Tudor. Owen, 318 Tnn, the, 6 TunnaEe and Poundage, lev; of, 8 Tnrke;, revolt of Greeks, $42. 04

Crimean war, SOT - 069 ; wi

1877, B86-588 Tyler. Walter, leader of Tyndale, Blbl* ' —

Undertakers," the, ^68. BIB Uniformity, tbe act of, 269, 2T6, 286,

391, 39T Union, Act of, the, 312, 4G3, 404

Bin of, the, S23 United Irishmen. Society of, DIS

Taneoaver Island, becomes BrltUh pos-

aesatoD, D63 Vans, Sir Henry, 273, 273, 380. 3S7,

S90 Van Tramp, Admiral, 872. 878 Vers, Robert de, earl of Oxford, mar-

!ulB ot Dnblln, dnke of Ireland, 82-184 Verona, Congreaa ot. 641

Victoria. Queen of England, accession ot, 06) : marriage of. BBS : epochs of reign. 669 : assumes tltfs of

of IndO, 689; death a

-^-■am, battle of, 530

Wakefleld. battle of. 212

Walea, earl; relations to England. 91 ; under i:dward I.. 126. 13T : revolt agalnat Henry IT.. 101. lOS : Tudor settlement of. 282-263 : Coincn of, abolished. 842: «ee alto Llci*el;n

Wallace. William. Scott lab patriot lead-

622

IHTDBT

Waller, Sir William, parliamentary gen- eral, 861, 852, 856

Walllngford, peace of, 84

Walpole, Bobert. 466, 468 ; reatorea pub- lic credit, 470 ; policy of, 471 ; quar- rel with Townahend, 472; first Sremler, 478 ; favon toleration, 74; attitude towards war <rf the Polish succession, 476; decline of Influence of, 477 ; death, 478

Walter, Hubert, archbishop of Canter- bury, 96, 97-09; death, 104 of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen, chancellor of Richard I., 96

Waltheof, earl of Nortbumbria, 52, 57, 59, 67

Walworth, mayor of London, 178

Wanborough, battle of, 11

Wandewash, battle o^ 491

Wapentake, the, 34

Warbeck, Ferkln, pretender In time of Henry VII., 281-288

Warrenne, John, earl, regent of Scot- land, 141

Warwick, aee Beauchamp, Neville and Dudley

Washington. George, 511

Waterloo, battle of, 534, 535; effect upon English public opinion, 587

Watt, James, Inventor, 406

Wedgewood. Jostah, potter, 407

Wedmore, the Peace of, 10

Wellesley, Sir Arthur, duke of Welling- ton, In India, 525 ; In Peninsula, 531 ; In Waterloo campaign, 533- 535 ; prime minister, 543, 544 ; fall of ministry, 545 ; opposes Reform Bill, 547 ; supports Com Law re- peal, 563

Wentworth, Charles Watson, marquis of Kookingham, first ministry of, 503, 506 : second ministry, 518

Wen^'vorth, Thomas, earl of Strafford, parliamentary leader. 310, 323, 326; supports king, 328; deputy of Ireland, 883. 334; in the Royal Council. 338, 330; attainder of, 341, 342

Wergeld, the. 7, 28

Wesley, John, see Methodist movement

Westminster, Council of, 86 Peace of, 402 Provision of, 110. 120, 126

Whig Party, naming of the. 407: rise

^«I°®' t^^ • ^"* «»•* o' J*"!©- of the, 464 ; reforms of the, 538, 551 ; see

^^^ , al90 under Tory party

Whitby. Synod of, 14

Whitfield. George. 478

White ship, the, 77

Wllberforce, William, anti-slavery airi- tator, 518. 540

Wilfrid. 14, 15

Wilkes, John. 501, 504. 605, 507, 508

Wilkes, the affair, 576

William I., the Conqueror, duke of Nor- mandy, 51. 52: invasion of England, 62-66; conquest of England, 57-60;

reorganises the Idngdom, 60^^; death and character of, 68, 60 William II., Rufus, 70-72 111., Prince of Orange, 400; Invades England, 421-426; accession to En-

fllsh throne, 427-428; character of, 20 ; In Ireland. 432 ; accepts crown of Scotland, 433 ; in war of English succession. 434 ; relations with par- liament, 435-438; Introduces party government, 430; new political conditions. 442: the partition treaties, 443, 444 ; opposition In parliament, 445; death. 446 IV., accession of, 545; democratic sympathies of, 546; attitude to- ward parliamentary reform, 546, 547

William, Longsword, earl of Salisbury, 107, 112

William of Orange. 202. 206

William, son of ilenry I.. 77

William, the Lion, King of Scotland,

William and Mary*s War. 485 William Henrv. Fort, 480 Williams, archbishop of York, with- draws from Lords. 847 Wlnceby. battle of, 353 Winchelsey, archbishop, 132 Winchester, Henry of, supports Matilda,

Winchester, Statute of, 128

Wlnwood field, the, 13

Witchcraft, death penalties for abol- ished. 474

Witenagemot, 7, 81, see Magnum Con- cilium

Wolfe, takes Quebec. 401

Woisey, General, 604

Wolaey. Thomas, Cardinal, minister of Henry VIII., 239, 240; unpopular- Itv of, 241. 242; relation to thp Church. 242. 243; fall of, 244, 246

Wood's Pence, 461

Woodstock, Council at, 85

Woodville, Anthony. Lord Scales. 215.

Woodville. Elisabeth, Queen of Edward

Woodvli'le, Sir Richard, earl Rivers. 215, 216

Worcester, battle of, 370. 373

Wren, Sir Christopher, plans for re- building London, 450

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, literary work, 305 : rising under Mary, 278

Wycllf, ,Tohn. 168; trial of, 171. 172; works of. 174 ; reforms of, 180

WykeOiam. William of. bishop of Win- chester. 167; minister of Edward III., 168-184; death, 194

York, school of. 15 York, proposition, the, 849 Young Ireland Party, 560

Zulus, war with the. 580 Zutphen. 207

*s » >

' I

r

To avoid fine, this book should be returned on or before the dite last stamped below

lOM — ••40

♦:.' ; *'

^

1

CO (D r-l

fH CD

C

•H ^

n o

3

(D C

i -P

a

I

M

1

n

' H

■*'

r » O

• (T

■§-